For Turetzky, Kaufman, Front Row Seats On The Nets' Roller-Coaster

Herb Turetzky has been the Nets scorekeeper for 1,177 consecutive games. Hasn't missed one, not during the 12-70 season, not during the four years the Nets played at the Rutgers Athletic Center. Mitch Kaufman has been the Nets video coordinator for almost as long, He's watch a lot of tape, some film too. So they're qualified to talk about the Nets' legacy.

For each there is a special memory. Turetzky's is about Drazen Petrovic. "He was as hard a worker as I have ever seen," Turetzky said. "He took two extremely talented players (Derrick Coleman and Kenny Anderson) who weren’t reaching their potential and turned those guys into All Stars. They were embarrassed to not work hard when he was there ... when he was killed their careers floundered. They never retained that drive."

Kaufman remembers Jason Kidd's speech to the club at the preseason team dinner in 2001. "Jason got up and told us at a dinner before training camp that ‘the losing was over,’" said Kaufman. "It was a speech that I have never seen a player make at a dinner. We took off out of the gate."

• Nets to play final home game in New Jersey Monday - AP
• Nets' middling-if-not-colorful history - Andy Vasquez - The Record
• The Best (and Worst) of the New Jersey Nets - Alex Raskin - Wall Street Journal