I was thinking the other day how many times the Nets have taken on a so-called rebuilding, from the Secaucus 7, to even before that...then I read an article a couple weeks back by Fred Kerber stating technically this is Thorn's 3rd rebuilding attempt (Kidd, Carter and the present)...If you've been a Nets fan for as long as I have...you go back to the 80s an Drazen/Coleman/Anderson...then some dreadful years of who cares...then came the mid 90s...Everyone wanted a Center and we got Sean Bradley (you know that story)...
Then the Nets buckle down and put a decent team together during three year stretch...but the fact is we all knew even back then, the Nets had no chance of winning a championship with that team...
1995
June 24: Vancouver selects Benoit Benjamin in the expansion draft.
November 30: Nets trade Derrick Coleman, Sean Higgins and Rex Walters to Philadelphia for Shawn Bradley, Greg Graham and Tim Perry.
1996
January 19: Nets trade Kenny Anderson and Gerald Glass to Charlotte for Kendall Gill and Khalid Reeves.
July 16: Nets trade Greg Graham to Seattle for Vincent Askew.
November 4: Nets trade Vincent Askew to Indiana for Reggie Williams.
1997
February 17: Nets trade Shawn Bradley, Robert Pack, Ed O’Bannon and Khalid Reeves to Dallas for Jim Jackson, Chris Gatling, Sam Cassell, Eric Montross and George McCloud.
February 20: Nets trade George McCloud to the Los Angeles Lakers in exchange for Joe Kleine and the Lakers 1997 1st round draft choice (Anthony Parker) and a conditional 2nd round pick.
June 27: Nets trade Eric Montross, Jim Jackson and the rights to 1997 draft picks Tim Thomas and Anthony Parker to Philadelphia for the rights to 1997 draft pick Keith Van Horn, Michael Cage, Lucious Harris and Don MacLean.
97-98 was good year for the Nets...
So fast forward to the Thorn years and you find yourself in a familiar position, but completely different scenario...the Nets have a potential owner who would be willing to spend beyond the luxury tax, Ratner is basically out of the picture beyond the pure real estate Brooklyn Arena details...other than given Ratner credit for the Brooklyn concept iteslf, flying to Moscow to sit down with Mikhail Prokhorov who would become the ultimtate majority owner ...we are now waiting on the below three key obstacles to go the Nets way:
• A hearing at the New York State Court of Appeals is scheduled for October 14 to review a challenge to a previous ruling that the state could use eminent domain in this case to seize land for use by a private developer for commercial purposes. This is a very contentious issue, and one that foes of the project have long pinned their hopes on.
• Prokhorov still needs to get approval from 75 percent of the NBA's owners. This is probably not a very big hurdle: Owners will want to expand brand appeal to the Russian market, which he hopes to do, and plus, foreign owners of teams are becoming increasingly common in other sports.
• Ratner is facing a December deadline to break ground. If he doesn't, he will lose access to financing from tax-free bonds. Because of this, the deal is conditional upon Ratner having financing for the arena project and control of all the land by the end of the year. If he doesn't swing these parts, the whole thing seems likely to fall through.
Remember, if everything goes as planned, we would have the financial power and the draw to put together a true championship team...probably better than the best Kidd year...
