Sorry if someone has done this thread before. When I first got into basketball was around 1995 and I was 7 years old. The first game I ever saw on TV was Bulls/Knicks when MJ dropped 55. I never liked the Bulls though. I loved the Jazz because Karl Malone was my favorite player (and still is). They were the only team I loved. Then came Halloween night 1997. I'm not sure who they were facing. It was opening night and the Nets had Sam Cassell, Kendall Gill, Jayson Williams, Keith Van Horn (rookie year), Lucious Harris, and Kerry Kittles. The game was amazing. I fell in love with them that night and they became my favorite team (I still loved Malone and the Jazz, though). I tried to watch every game that year and was ecstatic they made it to the playoffs (only to be swept by the Bulls). After that, Cassell and others were traded for Stephon Marbury. I liked Stephon at the time. Little did I know he would almost destroy my team. The Nets were still my favorite team but most of my time following the NBA revolved around the Jazz and the Knicks (I wanted both of them to win a chip so damn bad). Then came Jason Kidd. When I heard about the Kidd for Marbury swap, I was in California on summer vacation. Kidd was one of my favorite players. I remember watching him play on the Suns when Cliff Robinson, Penny Hardaway, and Tom Gugliotta were all stars. I was skeptical though. I wasn't sure if Kidd could help more than Marbury could. Boy, was I wrong. The ride to the NBA finals was bittersweet. I loved every second of it. That year I saw the Nets face the Jazz (only time I would ever see Malone play). Nets won but Malone scored 41 points after K-Mart nearly injured him. The next summer I was in Canada and saw on the ESPN bottomline that the Nets traded Van Horn and MacCullogh for Mutombo. I didn't know what to think. I was torn about the trade but the Nets made it to the finals. Richard Jefferson, a second year player, was amazing. K-Mart was ferocious and J-Kidd deserved an MVP. That summer we signed Alonzo Mourning and I was convinced we would make it to the Finals again (I still think we would if Zo wasn't hurt). I was distraught when Zo retired. We wasted so much money on the bum. The Pistons/Nets playoff series that year was one of the most entertaining I've ever seen (mostly because of Game 5). The Nets lost the first 2 games, then won the next 2. Game 5 was in Detroit. I was in ninth grade and my school had battle of the bands that night. My friends and I went and I kept track of the game on my cell phone. We walked home on the side of the road to my friend's house. It took us 45 minutes and we got to the house to watch the last half to the first overtime and the ensuing second and third overtimes. The game was amazing. I still remember vividly Scalabrine hitting a corner 3. I thought we'd make it to the finals and face off against the Lakers. That would have been a win-win for me. Either my favorite team would finally win a championship, or my favorite player would. That summer was horrible. K-Mart was gone for THREE DRAFT PICKS. I was ****ing pissed. I couldn't believe it. I was up in arms about it. Needless to say I kept on watching my Nets. Richard Jefferson was carrying the team with an injured Kidd on the sideline (I remember a 2-11 start). Kidd came back, but we kept on losing. It was 10th grade and a Friday night. I was at work. I get a text message from a friend of mine "Vince Carter is gay". I shrugged it off, not knowing what the hell he was talking about. Two days later, I log onto NBA.com only to see a picture of Vince Carter holding up a Nets jersey. MY REACTION WAS WHAT THE ****. I loved Vince Carter. I followed him since he was at UNC. He was one of my favorite players (and my #2 all-time currently). I was ecstatic. I watched every game from then on and witness VC and JK bring us to the playoffs -- only to be swept. I followed the team the following season and saw most of the games. I thought we'd win the championship. Krstic was emerging, Uncle Cliffy was a great piece for us and our big three was in great shape. We blew out Miami in game 1 of the Eastern conference semis. Then Cliffy's drug test came back and he was suspended. I know we could have beaten the Heat if we had Cliffy. There was no veteran backing up Krstic against Shaq and he choked and we lost the next 4 games. It was the summer before 12th grade and I was away at Boys' State New York. I got a job with the newspaper and spent a lot of time in an air-conditioned building. It was great because everyone else had to do drills in the hot daylight. One night as I walk into the newspaper office, I notice the NBA draft is on and I hear "With the 22nd pick in the 2006 NBA draft, the New Jersey Nets select Marcus Williams out of University of Connecticut" I was so happy. I barely watched NCAA after VC turned pro but I always liked Marcus Williams. The next pick we got Boone and I couldn't be more happy (as opposed to the 2005 draft where all I wanted was Hakim Warrick and we ended up with that idiot Antoine Wright). The next year would be great. In 2006-2007, I watched EVERY game. I couldn't get enough. After the all-star break there were only 2 games where I wasn't in attendance (I didn't even have season tickets at the time). My parents and my sister learned to ignore my screaming during games. I was so enthralled by the action and on the edge of my seat every game. I miss that season. We went onto get the 6th seed (none of my friends thought it was possible) and we beat Toronto in 6. I thought we would meet the Pistons again, but Cleveland beat us. I was very upset. If we had Krstic we could have won. His rebounding would have helped out a lot. I wasn't there for game 6 though, because of stupid senior prom. The following summer I got season tickets -- and well, you guys know the story. I thought we had a real shot at the championship, and so did most of us. I still think we did though, if only we had a better coach and if only Magloire and Sean started every game. Every gives Mags a lot of shit but we would play 20 minutes and get 8 pts and grab 8 boards...then he wouldn't play for the next nine games. It was bullshit. Whatever though. Now it's a new team and a new and hopefully brighter future. Initially I wanted this thread to be about how everyone fell in love with the Nets, but I guess now it turned into the journey from when you became a Nets fan and now. I think it'd be fun for everyone to tell their story, before we embark on another journey to win a title.
my dad followed the Nets since the ABA days when he was a kid. So I kinda just grew up with it, the first game I went to was in 92 against the Bulls. I was also a Bulls fan (what little kid wouldn't like Jordan? ) but I remember it being a good game- Anderson, Coleman, Petro...the good ol days. saw them again every now and then throughout the 90's and 00's, last season I didn't get season tickets, but did get tickets to see at least one game a month (sometimes 2 or 3) I plan to do the same this season; I just don't have the finances for season tickets.
i loved what you said but my favorite part is when the nets signed lebron james and amare stoudemire in 2010.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (jirohkanzaki @ Jul 23 2008, 08:36 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>i loved what you said but my favorite part is when the nets signed lebron james and amare stoudemire in 2010.</div> I didnt realize fictional reasons counted....
I started watching basketball right around when the expansion in Charlotte happened and I really liked the persona of several of their players: LJ and Muggsy primarily. Charlotte is a long ways off, so I watched whatever games they had on TV. I wasn't a hardcore Hornets fan per say, more of a huge NBA fan who preferred to watch young exciting players who played with emotion, which in my eyes, that team embodied. Eventually with the ownership problems the Hornets had and the Bobby Phils incident, my partiality towards them began to wane. In '93, I started out going to Net's games to see "the other team". My dad and I would get 7 or 15 game packs in the upper deck every year. Starting in '97 we split a season tickets pack, 4th row behind the basket on the Nets side with a few family friends. I was in Rochester NY for college, but we split up the tickets so I would be able to drive down for most of the weekend home games. We continued with that arrangement for 3 years until our family friend whose name the plan was in, passed away and we were not allowed to transfer it. In '00 we took a break. All the 6 hour drives on weekends and the fact that we'd lost our seats, I think I only went to 2 or 3 games. Then Kidd happened. That first year we went back to a 15 game pack. I found myself going to the games and in my heart wanting the Nets to win. The determination Kidd played with... his will to win... it was intoxicating. We got a playoff pack and we really enjoyed the ride, despite the heartbreak at the end. '01 we again did a 15 game plan + playoffs and there was no denying it, I had become a Nets fan. In '02 I began traveling for work heavily and so we only saw maybe 5 games. That continued into '03 and '04. In '05 I changed jobs and met my wife - no longer traveling, we went for a half season plan and my wife enjoyed it. '06 + '07 we went for full season tickets again. I have to say, my wife does not take failure well. If you ever see a petite woman with an angelic face but the mouth of a construction worker heckling the refs / Nets / opponents... its probably her lmao. In '08 we're again going for full season tickets. Hopefully my wife's basketball education is to the point where she understands that winning is not everything... that developing players is just as important... or it will be a loooonggg season, and probably would be the last full season we do. The move to Brooklyn won't effect the distance we drive to games, but the fact we'd have to go across 2 bridges to get there + fight for parking... I doubt we do more than a handful of games a year there. I wish mass transit was an option. If any Nets' front office are reading... explore options for people from Rockland and Westchester counties to have a shuttle bus to Brooklyn games like it was mentioned they may have for NJ fans!
JASON KIDD Made me love the nets. He was the only one to bring this franchise out of the dark into the winning mode. Despite it all we owe it all to him and Rod Thorn!
Keith Van Horn's socks. In honesty, I want to see them moved to Brooklyn. Oh, and the more the Knicks sucked, Nets became more attractive.
