A Nets Fans Tribute

During this NBA Finals I will of course add my opinion to the action that is going on the court just like everyone else. Though you are going to read probably about 50 other Finals breakdowns from people who are admittedly smarter than me. So in an effort to keep things fresh I'm going to keep another angle alive.

I call it, the Nets dedication angle. Upon thinking about these NBA Finals from a Nets fans mind, I was trying to think of an angle that would pertain to the Nets. I was all juiced up when Kmart was in the conference finals because I thought he was going to reappear and get his shot at a championship which he didn't attain with the Nets. But then, Kobe did his thing, and took KMart out. So that got me to thinking, who on either of these teams rosters had Nets ties?
Well looking at the Lakers, they had none, though I wrote on my blog and Ian O'Connor of the Record covered extensively that Kobe could have been a Net had he not threatened to play in Italy had the Nets drafted him.

How about on the Magic? Well one of the big story lines for the Magic heading into this Finals is whether or not All-Star point guard Jameer Nelson is going to play. This story actually puts the one former Net player in this whole finals in the spot light as well, Magic backup point guard Anthony Johnson.

Ah yes, every Nets fan favorite backup. The towel waving back up to the great Jason Kidd. No one really knew the true value of Johnson until after he left, and we the Nets, had a tough time finding another reliable backup, and only this year we found Keyon Dooling to do the job.

Of course no one will forget in the 2006 NBA playoffs when the Nets met the Pacers in the first round and Anthony Johnson absolutely had the series of his life..including this game in which he actually went off for 40 points against Jason Kidd. Ridicolous game to watch by the way. I think I screamed at my TV five different times.."It's Anthony freaking Johnson for god sake!"

Well I'm going to be detailing what Anthony Johnson does in this playoffs as a tribute and a sign of loyalty to those who gave their all for the Nets organization. Right now here's where we stand with AJ's playoff stats - a very modest 4.3 ppg, 2.1 apg, and 1.4 rpg in 14.7 mpg. His minutes though are sure to go down as the roations get smaller and the threat of Jameer playing which is looming large. So we'll see how he does.