Location: East Rutherford, N.J. | Arena: Continental Airlines Arena (20,032) | Principal Owner: Bruce Ratner | GM: Kiki Vandeweghe Head Coach: Lawrence Frank | Titles: 0
| NBA.com:Nets Tickets
--The Nets hired Kiki Vandeweghe in December to serve as the special assistant to team president Rod Thorn, a job that would keep him employed through the draft. Now Vandeweghe is expected to be on board a lot longer, having been promoted to general manager with a reported two-year, $3 million deal.
"When I got here, I was very excited to work with somebody like Rod Thorn, who I've been an admirer of for a long time. I sat across the table from him and knew I had a lot to learn from him and know I know I have a lot more to learn," Vandeweghe said. "I hope that I've had some input and some positive input as to the roster and the direction. I think both of us really believe you have to pick a direction, you have to know where you stand and do things that fit that direction. Neither one of us likes Band-Aid solutions."
--The Nets are hoping 2000 can replay itself all over. They entered that lottery with a 4.4 percent chance at the top spot while expecting to pick seventh. They wound up with the No. 1 pick that they used on Kenyon Martin. It will be tougher this time. The Nets are scheduled to pick 10th and have only 11 balls out of 1,000 in the lottery, giving them just a 1.1 percent chance for the top spot -- which they likely would use on 6-9 Kansas State freshman power forward Michael Beasley.
This will be the Nets' 10th time in the lottery overall but their first time since 2001 when they figured to pick sixth, based on record, but dropped to seventh. The slip didn't matter, though, as the Nets chose seventh for Houston and tabbed the late Eddie Griffin, who they traded for three first rounders: Richard Jefferson, Jason Collins and Brandon Armstrong. Jefferson and Collins were key contributors on the teams that landed in the Finals in 2002 and 2003.
QUOTE TO NOTE "Just making the playoffs is not where we want to be. All of us want to end up a team that can compete at a championship level, as good as anybody, any given night we can beat anybody. So you give yourself a legitimate chance to win a conference title, to compete at a championship level." -- Kiki Vandeweghe, recently promoted to general manager, on the Nets' immediate goals.
Copyright (C) 2008 The Sports Xchange. All Rights Reserved.
It seems China has told him to concentrate on getting boards. I figure due to lack of size from the rest of the team they want him on the glass instead of looking for offense. Although he's done okay offensively I feel he should be taking more shots for them. But hey if he learns to rebound more thats okay for us.
Josh Boone at the Jets Giants preseason game this last weekend? It see,ed most people didn't recognize him, though I find it hard to believe seeing as he's almost 7 feet tall. No entourage, just seemed like another fan, albeit a very tall fan.
