boutons_
04-26-2006, 02:22 PM
April 26, 2006
Sports of The Times
Carter Is Making the Nets a Hot Ticket
By HARVEY ARATON (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/sports/columns/harveyaraton/?inline=nyt-per)
East Rutherford, N.J.
DO you wonder how the Nets (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/sports/probasketball/nationalbasketballassociation/newjerseynets/index.html?inline=nyt-org) have managed to draw more fans to Continental Arena this season as declared New Jersey lame ducks than they did during their successive runs to the N.B.A. finals?
Don't tell me it's not, in large part, because Vince Carter (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/c/vince_carter/index.html?inline=nyt-per) can create a highlight package of his own as easily as he flips open a cellphone, without monopolizing the commercial benefits as much as he occasionally does the ball.
"Some of the most popular players in the league are the ones with the highest shot attempts," Richard Jefferson said before the Nets answered critics of their Carter-heavy offense with a 90-75 victory over Indiana last night that evened their first-round playoff series.
Compared with Sunday, when Carter shot the ball 33 times in Game 1, the Nets played with purpose, with balance, with results. It helped that the Pacers' (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/sports/probasketball/nationalbasketballassociation/indianapacers/index.html?inline=nyt-org) Peja Stojakovic sat out with a sore knee, that Jermaine O'Neal fouled his way to inconsequence. But Jason Kidd (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/k/jason_kidd/index.html?inline=nyt-per) was dealing again, Nenad Krstic was posting up strong in the paint, Jefferson was driving hard and dunking, like Carter, who was still the hub with 33 points on a utilitarian 20 shots, including fourth-quarter backbreakers answering a late Pacers run.
"Everybody touched the ball tonight," Jefferson said, a postgame observation that was pure Jeffersonian diplomacy for the argument that these Nets do not need Carter to be what Allen Iverson (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/i/allen_iverson/index.html?inline=nyt-per) must be for the 76ers (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/sports/probasketball/nationalbasketballassociation/philadelphia76ers/index.html?inline=nyt-org), Kobe Bryant (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/kobe_bryant/index.html?inline=nyt-per) for the Lakers (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/sports/probasketball/nationalbasketballassociation/losangeleslakers/index.html?inline=nyt-org). Even if, as Jefferson noted, players who dominate their teams like 21st century Michael Jordans are the league's most celebrated, if network preference and the latest jersey sales that the league charts on NBA.com (http://nba.com/) are fair indicators.
In a sport that is inexorably guided by the shoe company agenda, it's not surprising that the Nets have evolved in a little more than a season from Kidd's team to Carter's.
"Vince has been our leader all along and he gets the majority of the shots," said Jefferson, ever the good soldier on the other wing. "That's not going to change." That's fine, so long as Carter doesn't treat any more playoff games like a Rucker League audition, beginning tomorrow in Indianapolis.
When he arrived last season, Carter was a godsend, a near-criminal fleecing of the Toronto Raptors (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/sports/probasketball/nationalbasketballassociation/torontoraptors/index.html?inline=nyt-org) by the Nets' president, Rod Thorn, just when the Nets' wait for their Brooklyn palace promised cold, dark and vault-draining years in the swamp.
As long as they play in New Jersey, the financial bleeding won't be stanched, but at the risk of sounding too analytical, if not conspiratorial, let's just say that having Carter as the face of his franchise helps ease the pain.
Lip service and Steve Nash notwithstanding, the perception looms larger than ever in the minds of league marketers that superstars and scorers are the sexier sell. They go to bed every night praying that Detroit and San Antonio do not get a second chance to let basketball purists hail selflessness, while finals ratings sag.
Not long ago, Magic Johnson (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/j/earvin_johnson/index.html?inline=nyt-per) told me that he believed pro basketball's most damaging mistake has been to condition fans to think that the Jordan phenomenon could be reinvented, willed to reality, starting in the late 1990's with a young flier out of North Carolina named Carter.
"Michael was Michael, but what happened with Vince was that we stopped promoting teams that were winners and we went with individuals," Johnson said. "And it was always the individuals that could make the crowd yell for one play, not the players like Tim Duncan (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/d/tim_duncan/index.html?inline=nyt-per), Jason Kidd, guys who really understand the team game."
There are always exceptions to the stereotypes, LeBron James (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/j/lebron_james/index.html?inline=nyt-per) to name one. But you could argue that at the heart of the debate about the Nets' offense is a window into the continuing battle for the soul of the sport. Which comes first, entertainment or team?
Carter's 35 percent shooting in the first round last season, a four-game sweep by Miami, should have been Coach Lawrence Frank's first playoff reminder of what happens when postseason defense meets predictable offense. Given their arsenal, the so-called Big Four the Nets have been bragging about, they should never have to stand around and watch Carter launch 33 shots. They should never have to worry that Carter will, in a 1- or 2-point game, pull up on a crucial possession and shoot a distant 3-pointer, as he did in several games this season.
Once in a while, as happened in a storybook finish in Toronto this season, the shot falls, the highlights roll at 6 and 11, jerseys are sold, endorsements are earned. Everyone makes a few extra bucks, but the basketball percentages, the good shots created by good teams, win out in the end.
Carter went with the flow last night, was a dominant player without dominating the offense. "They brought me here not just to win 49 games, but to win playoff games," he said after his first Nets postseason victory. "How many shots I get up, it's not about that. I could care less about the shots."
( yep, we all belive that, yessir, we do )
He said it like he meant it, and it is Frank's job to remind him if and when he forgets. Carter has said since he came south of the border that he wanted to blend in, be a go-to guy on Kidd's team. Kidd may still be the captain, but it's Carter's team now, and his responsibility, first and foremost, to make sure it plays like one.
E-mail: [email protected]
Copyright 2006 (http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/copyright.html) The New York Times Company (http://www.nytco.com/)
Sports of The Times
Carter Is Making the Nets a Hot Ticket
By HARVEY ARATON (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/sports/columns/harveyaraton/?inline=nyt-per)
East Rutherford, N.J.
DO you wonder how the Nets (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/sports/probasketball/nationalbasketballassociation/newjerseynets/index.html?inline=nyt-org) have managed to draw more fans to Continental Arena this season as declared New Jersey lame ducks than they did during their successive runs to the N.B.A. finals?
Don't tell me it's not, in large part, because Vince Carter (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/c/vince_carter/index.html?inline=nyt-per) can create a highlight package of his own as easily as he flips open a cellphone, without monopolizing the commercial benefits as much as he occasionally does the ball.
"Some of the most popular players in the league are the ones with the highest shot attempts," Richard Jefferson said before the Nets answered critics of their Carter-heavy offense with a 90-75 victory over Indiana last night that evened their first-round playoff series.
Compared with Sunday, when Carter shot the ball 33 times in Game 1, the Nets played with purpose, with balance, with results. It helped that the Pacers' (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/sports/probasketball/nationalbasketballassociation/indianapacers/index.html?inline=nyt-org) Peja Stojakovic sat out with a sore knee, that Jermaine O'Neal fouled his way to inconsequence. But Jason Kidd (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/k/jason_kidd/index.html?inline=nyt-per) was dealing again, Nenad Krstic was posting up strong in the paint, Jefferson was driving hard and dunking, like Carter, who was still the hub with 33 points on a utilitarian 20 shots, including fourth-quarter backbreakers answering a late Pacers run.
"Everybody touched the ball tonight," Jefferson said, a postgame observation that was pure Jeffersonian diplomacy for the argument that these Nets do not need Carter to be what Allen Iverson (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/i/allen_iverson/index.html?inline=nyt-per) must be for the 76ers (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/sports/probasketball/nationalbasketballassociation/philadelphia76ers/index.html?inline=nyt-org), Kobe Bryant (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/kobe_bryant/index.html?inline=nyt-per) for the Lakers (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/sports/probasketball/nationalbasketballassociation/losangeleslakers/index.html?inline=nyt-org). Even if, as Jefferson noted, players who dominate their teams like 21st century Michael Jordans are the league's most celebrated, if network preference and the latest jersey sales that the league charts on NBA.com (http://nba.com/) are fair indicators.
In a sport that is inexorably guided by the shoe company agenda, it's not surprising that the Nets have evolved in a little more than a season from Kidd's team to Carter's.
"Vince has been our leader all along and he gets the majority of the shots," said Jefferson, ever the good soldier on the other wing. "That's not going to change." That's fine, so long as Carter doesn't treat any more playoff games like a Rucker League audition, beginning tomorrow in Indianapolis.
When he arrived last season, Carter was a godsend, a near-criminal fleecing of the Toronto Raptors (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/sports/probasketball/nationalbasketballassociation/torontoraptors/index.html?inline=nyt-org) by the Nets' president, Rod Thorn, just when the Nets' wait for their Brooklyn palace promised cold, dark and vault-draining years in the swamp.
As long as they play in New Jersey, the financial bleeding won't be stanched, but at the risk of sounding too analytical, if not conspiratorial, let's just say that having Carter as the face of his franchise helps ease the pain.
Lip service and Steve Nash notwithstanding, the perception looms larger than ever in the minds of league marketers that superstars and scorers are the sexier sell. They go to bed every night praying that Detroit and San Antonio do not get a second chance to let basketball purists hail selflessness, while finals ratings sag.
Not long ago, Magic Johnson (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/j/earvin_johnson/index.html?inline=nyt-per) told me that he believed pro basketball's most damaging mistake has been to condition fans to think that the Jordan phenomenon could be reinvented, willed to reality, starting in the late 1990's with a young flier out of North Carolina named Carter.
"Michael was Michael, but what happened with Vince was that we stopped promoting teams that were winners and we went with individuals," Johnson said. "And it was always the individuals that could make the crowd yell for one play, not the players like Tim Duncan (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/d/tim_duncan/index.html?inline=nyt-per), Jason Kidd, guys who really understand the team game."
There are always exceptions to the stereotypes, LeBron James (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/j/lebron_james/index.html?inline=nyt-per) to name one. But you could argue that at the heart of the debate about the Nets' offense is a window into the continuing battle for the soul of the sport. Which comes first, entertainment or team?
Carter's 35 percent shooting in the first round last season, a four-game sweep by Miami, should have been Coach Lawrence Frank's first playoff reminder of what happens when postseason defense meets predictable offense. Given their arsenal, the so-called Big Four the Nets have been bragging about, they should never have to stand around and watch Carter launch 33 shots. They should never have to worry that Carter will, in a 1- or 2-point game, pull up on a crucial possession and shoot a distant 3-pointer, as he did in several games this season.
Once in a while, as happened in a storybook finish in Toronto this season, the shot falls, the highlights roll at 6 and 11, jerseys are sold, endorsements are earned. Everyone makes a few extra bucks, but the basketball percentages, the good shots created by good teams, win out in the end.
Carter went with the flow last night, was a dominant player without dominating the offense. "They brought me here not just to win 49 games, but to win playoff games," he said after his first Nets postseason victory. "How many shots I get up, it's not about that. I could care less about the shots."
( yep, we all belive that, yessir, we do )
He said it like he meant it, and it is Frank's job to remind him if and when he forgets. Carter has said since he came south of the border that he wanted to blend in, be a go-to guy on Kidd's team. Kidd may still be the captain, but it's Carter's team now, and his responsibility, first and foremost, to make sure it plays like one.
E-mail: [email protected]
Copyright 2006 (http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/copyright.html) The New York Times Company (http://www.nytco.com/)