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July 1, 2008
Nets owner Bruce Ratner says rebuilding doesn't mean losing
NY Daily News
Now that the NJ Nets have officially started their rebuilding phase, how the heck does Ratner convince NJ fans to care about a lame duck team that he plans to move to Brooklyn one of these days?
But just because the team is planning that far ahead doesn't mean it has lost focus on the more immediate future.
That was the message team owner Bruce Ratner sent Monday to fans in New Jersey who may be worried that the team is going to sacrifice the next two seasons to make a splashy debut in Brooklyn. Although the Nets traded Richard Jefferson last week in a move that had as much to do with finances as it did with strategy, Ratner insisted that team president Rod Thorn and general manager Kiki Vandeweghe are not giving up on the final two years in New Jersey.
"It's just not true," Ratner said at a press conference to introduce the team's three draft pick. "Rod will always be as competitive as possible every single year that he possibly can. If he does some rebuilding, at the same time he'll try to be competitive. It has nothing to do with Brooklyn or New Jersey or any other place.
The Newark Star-Ledger, Nets 'R' looking to future
"Yeah, it's a rebuilding effort," Nets owner Bruce Ratner conceded yesterday, when the team brought in three guys barely a year out of their teens to underscore their predicament. "Maybe people don't like to use that word. But at the same time, when you rebuild, you try to make yourself competitive ... It's hard to do."
Blogs.NYPost.com, Good Evening, Ladies and Germs...
And columnist Fred Kerber posted this on the NY Post blog:
Owner Bruce Ratner was on hand. While he admits the team is in "rebuilding" mode - Thorn preferred to call it "re-tooling," he insists the Nets are not giving up on their dwindling days in New Jersey. And he neatly side-stepped the LeBron James issue for 2010. Everyone on the planet sees the Nets clearing cap space to make a run at Jay-Z's pal.
"Yeah, it's a rebuilding effort. Maybe people don't like to use that word, but at the same time, when you rebuild you try to make yourself competitive," Ratner said. "I don't want to acknowledge that we'll hit bottom. We'll do everything we can to make ourselves competitive."
And as per Joizee versus Brooklyn, Ratner said, "We make sure that this is a regional team, and make sure all fans are happy. On the sports side, it's always to win. Rod has never been told anything different, and never will be. Our job is to win and build the best team we can - whether we're in Brooklyn, whether we're in New Jersey. Whatever we do this year, the goal is the same and always will be."
And finally, on King James, is there a plan to get him here?
"We really don't (have a plan). Our plan is to put ourselves in the best position all the time. 10-11 is a year when there are a lot of free agents, and we want to be in a position where if one comes our way we're able to do that," Ratner said.
Fox Sports, Nets making way for LBJ, Class of 2010
For those of you who want to understand how LeBron James figures into the mix, Peter Vecsey explains:
By my count, the Nets are the 23rd team to set their sights on the free agent Class of 2010.
Clearing cap room two years ahead of time on the belief James' outwardly magnetic bond with Nets' minority owner Jay-Z (it's not as if he rhymes as tight as Biggie Smalls) will influence him to forsake his home state of Ohio is like building an elaborate spec house just across the Brooklyn Bridge in today's saggy, baggy real estate market.
Yet here we have intrepid Nets' owner Bruce Ratner (from Cleveland), no less doing both!
ESPN, LeBron aware that Nets, Knicks looking to snag All-Star in future
LeBron James has kept speculation alive that he's seeking an eventual trade to the Nets:
It appears, judging from James' comments Monday, that the Nets might be James' preferred destination if he opts out of his contract in the summer of 2010 and becomes an unrestricted free agent.
James listed New York as his favorite city Monday (his hometown of Akron, Ohio came in fifth behind Washington D.C., Dallas, and Los Angeles) as he took part in a one-day USA Basketball media blitz, and he also gave an answer to a follow-up question that'll make Knicks president Donnie Walsh and head coach Mike D'Antoni cringe.
"My favorite borough? Brooklyn," James said, choosing the proposed future home of the New Jersey Nets over the borough of Manhattan, where the Knicks play their home games. "Brooklyn is definitely a great place here in New York City, and some of my best friends are from Brooklyn, so I stick up for them."
Posted by lumi at July 1, 2008 4:48 AM