by Marcel Mutoni / @marcel_mutoni
I’m not sure how many Nets games you guys caught this season, but assuming you did watch them from time to time, you may find it hard to believe that a more sorry team has ever existed. But, it’s true. Last night at home, they made it a fact.
The ’72-’73 Sixers can breathe easy: their record of infamy (9-73) survived its most serious scare in quite some time, as the Nets won their 10th game of the year against a short-handed Spurs team.
The Star-Ledger was on hand, and captured the players’ reactions to their, um, historic win:
“It got that monkey off our back,” reserve guard Keyon Dooling said. “I mean, it’s just a relief to not have your name in the history books. When you think of Fred Carter and guys like that, that’s still on his resume. No matter how good of an analyst he is, no matter how good a player he was, that’s still a stain on his resume that you don’t want to have.”
But as the buzzer went off, the Nets were surprisingly subdued. Yes, even though 10-64 looks a lot better than 9-73. “Everyone’s happy for 10 wins, but don’t get us wrong – we’re still mad about the overall season,” said Terrence Williams (13 points, seven boards, three assists). “But we’re not in the record book. “It’s exciting to get to 10 wins,” Devin Harris agreed. “But then again, it is 10 wins.”
Yeah, I think that about sums it up.
The good news for the Nets is that things can only go up from here: they have a new, mysterious and obscenely rich owner coming onboard, and there seems to be quite a bit of belief out there that this team will soon become respectable.
Fred “Mad Dog” Carter — who is oddly proud of the Sixers’ putrid record — is undoubtedly happy this morning; but Nets fans (even the ones who wear paper bags to hide their shame during home games) have true reason to celebrate, and most importantly, ponder what promises to be a brighter future.
