Did the nets know Sports Illustrated would diss them in their NBA Preview, suggesting they would finish out of the playoffs and behind the Knicks?
Why do we ask? Because in each copy of the magazine sold in the New York area there's a full page ad pushing Nets tickets and an eight-page insert extolling the Nets chances this season and introducing the Barclays Center, the Nets new Brooklyn home.
The preview by Matt McQueeny, the Nets official scribe, ends with Lawrence Frank saying that the Nets will "play and settle for nothing less" than the divisional championship.
The introduction to the Barclays Center shows new images of a game room in a Frank Gehry-designed luxury suite and a glassed-in runway leading from the locker room to the court.