Hooped Up

It appears that the Nets who want to relocate to Brooklyn, are not the only ones stacking chips and clearing the decks to reel in the best player in the game.  LeBron James.

“The Nets were once considered the odds-on favorite to get LeBron James, possibly the game’s most transcending player. He is a close friend to the rapper Jay-Z, a part-owner of the Nets. But the team’s planned move to Brooklyn is at a standstill, which could significantly lessen the chances of James becoming a Net. That is the view of Sonny Vaccaro, the former shoe executive who keeps tabs on his former ABCD campers, James included. Vaccaro said he thought James would end up with the Knicks. “LeBron’s relationship with Jay-Z will go on regardless,” Vaccaro said. “He’ll be an international celebrity in New York. If the Nets aren’t in Brooklyn, he’s not going over there for even $200 million. They’re putting pieces together. They’re doing the right things. They’re just living in the wrong building.”

NY Times

Vince Carter believes that election day should be a day off in the NBA according to the New York Post. ”I don’t get it. This is an important day,” Carter said. “Everybody should be taking off from work and making sure they get to the polls.”

Carter said his bruised left hand was okay but he wasn’t sure if he’d play tonight wearing a bandage.

For some reason I can’t shake the though of Vince Carter getting injured in the voting booth. If there was anybody in the history of voting in the world that would get injured by voting it’s Vince Carter.

Yi Jianlian believes that children are the future…if they wear his jersey. Recently the newest Brooklyn member of the Nets Yi Jianlian, celebrated his 21st birthday with a bunch of kids at the YMCA in New York’s Chinatown and judging by the video, Yi is right up there with candy and snow days. Everybody has a Yi jersey!

I’m sure Yi told the children before he made his way to Scores that the best gift they could give him is to  take their vitamins, do well in school and buy more Yi jerseys.

Devin Harris came all the way to the UK to put on an exhibition and instead became one.  Beware of Stuart Tanner, dude looks like he just came back from class but isn’t afraid to teach a lesson and Devin Harris became a student.

LeBron James has got to be laughing somewhere.

The words Vince Carter and leader, goes together like Amy Winehouse and good hygiene.  However, Kiki V’s going to give it a go.  Bless his blinded optimism.

“Basketball fans in Toronto may boo Vince Carter every time they see him but they might laugh when they hear what Nets GM Kiki Vandeweghe said about the former Raptor Tuesday. Speaking to the media about the upcoming season - the Nets open camp on Saturday - Vandeweghe was asked which players will inherit leadership responsibilities now that Jason Kidd and Richard Jefferson are gone. Without hesitation, Vandeweghe said Vince Carter would have to take over that role, as well as point guardDevin Harris and some of the other veterans the Nets acquired during the busy offseason.”

New York Daily News

Jay-Z  sat down with VIBE magazine to discussed his dis/motivational track “Blow The Whistle” about the on court feud between LeBron James and DeShawn Stevenson that sparked when the Cavaliers and Wizards met in the playoffs this year. Stevenson claimed to the media that LeBron James is overrated, prompting James to say that he wouldn’t return the insult, as that would be “almost like Jay-Z  responding to a negative comment made by Soulja Boy.”   

It was at this point Jay-Z responded on behalf of LeBron James about the overrated comment made by Deshawn Stevenson with the “Blow The Whistle” track. Soulja boy then got involved, but that story is like a tale of the man that brought a pebble to a machine gun fight. Here’s what Jay-Z had to say about the whole thing.

“I had no intention to talk about the DeShawn Stevenson thing,” Jay-Z said in an interview with Vibe. “I seen him beatin’ the [expletive] out of LeBron, and he really couldn’t do nothing. I really wanted to inspire [LeBron]. I sent him the ["Blow The Whistle (freestyle)"]. The song wasn’t to be released.”

“I sent him the song to get him amped up. I do [expletive] like that. I hit him on the BlackBerry all the way through the playoffs. There’s a big trail of e-mails that we have where I’m almost like a coach on the sidelines for him ’cause…that’s my little brother! I’m giving him advice, even outside of ‘Take the ball to the elbow and shoot.’ The psychology of what’s going on: That’s my role in his life.”

Washington Post

Instead of heading into the season surrounded by familiar faces such as Richard Jefferson and Jason Kidd, Vince Carter will have to get accustomed to seeing Brook Lopez, Ryan Anderson and Chris Douglas-Roberts — the rookies — and Eduardo Najera, Jarvis Hayes and Keyon Dooling — the veteran additions — as well as Yi Jianlian and Bobby Simmons. Because he’s on the backside of his career and still has not won a championship, Carter was asked whether he has had any second thoughts about his desire to stay with the Nets, who are in a rebuilding mode. But he said he would not be pulling the kind of move Kidd did last season, when his early season trade request sabotaged the team’s chances of winning. He also said he has no intention of questioning the moves that team president Rod Thorn and GM Kiki Vandeweghe have made. “I’ve never questioned what they’re doing and I definitely want to be here,” Carter said. “It’s the way it goes. It’s the business of basketball.”

New York Daily News

Any program from a Nets’ game this past season already is horribly dated. And it’s going to get worse within a few days when Keyon Dooling is added after a sign-and-trade deal with Orlando is finalized. Dooling, 28, a 6-foot-3 combo guard, will fill the Nets’ most conspicuous need as a backup at both guard positions. The Nets and Magichave worked out the trade that still needs league approval.

New York Post

The Nets gave themselves maximum financial effectiveness ($22 million under the projected cap of $58M, July 1, 2010) to recruit potential free agent (while boxing out the Knicks) LeBron James. . .and Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh. Clearing cap room two years ahead of time on the belief James’ outwardly magnetic bond with Nets’ minority owner Jay-Z (it’s not as if he rhymes as tight as Biggie Smalls) will influence him to forsake his home state of Ohio is like building an elaborate spec house just across the Brooklyn Bridge in today’s saggy, baggy real estate market.

New York Post