Closing Time

Nets fans can't be sissies. On the day they leave their home of 29 years there are reports that the team lost $64 million last year--perhaps a record for an NBA team. Meanwhile, a congressman charges the new owner, a Russian, violated US sanctions by helping a vicious African dictator. Of course. There's also the overwhelming reality that the team is going to finish the season with the worst record in the NBA and worst in their history.  No nostalgia, please.  We're Nets fans.

We must also note what Julian Garcia reports. Some long-time employees of the IZOD Center are upset the Nets used Eric Clapton's "Layla" to wish them farewell in a video tribute on the team's website.  It seems some associate the song with that scene from "Goodfellas"...where it plays loudly as corpses are discovered in a car, in a meat locker and a garbage truck, all perfectly Jersey, it seems to us.  (Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run" might have been a better choice, except for another, more unfortunate, association...with the Brooklyn move.)

Well, at least Al Iannazzone and Fred Kerber fill our glass with the last of their reminiscences from Nets past and present.  We particularly like Al including Richard Jefferson's dissent from the general feeling that Game 5 of the 2002 Pacers-Nets series was the high point of the team's time in the Swamp.  RJ famously missed two free throws in regulation that would have iced the game.  "That was not a great memory," he said.

• Song hits wrong note for video tribute - Julian Garcia - The InterNets
• The Home Finale - Al Iannazzone - In the 'Zone
• Meadowlands memories for 3 Nets guys - Fred Kerber - New York Post Nets Blog