As the days count down to opening night, NBA.com writers have been asked to select their favorite teams. For John Schuhmann, who describes himself as "a Jersey guy through and through", the choice is the Nets' 2001-02 team, Kidd, KMart, Kittles, KVH and a whole lot of leadership by No. 5. But that's not the whole story.
For reasons that concerned family more than basketball, the Nets became Schuhmann's team...just as it had been his brother's. "They were entirely centered around Kidd," Schuhmann writes. "And the whole was much greater than the sum of its parts". Much like life. As Nets fans know, they didn't win it all, but they won a lot of hearts, including Schuhmann's.