The New Jersey Nets’ CEO discusses Barclays Center.
by Kyle Stack / @KyleStack
We’re going to change up Stack’s Stats this week. Normally, I would give you a main dish to set up the rest of the piece, including the second page Q&A section. Well, we got an especially notable interview this week for Stack’s Stats, and that means The Main Dish will be dropped for this edition. In its place is an extended Q&A section with Brett Yormark, who holds double CEO titles with the New Jersey Nets and Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment, which controls Barclays Center.
Yormark joined the Nets in January 2005, and, in 2007, helped seal a 20-year deal worth a reported $400 million with Barclays for the naming rights to the Nets’ Brooklyn arena. The Nets plan to move into Barclays Center for the ’12-13 season; the 18,000-seat arena—19,000 for concerts—will open in September with a concert led by Jay-Z, who has a minority ownership stake in the Nets. Yormark spoke about his duties in transitioning the Nets to Brooklyn, his corporate sponsorship strategy for the team and the arena and the types of programming Barclays Center will offer to patrons.
Fast Break Points
–Kobe Bryant passed Bill Russell this week in regular-season minutes played. Bryant now holds down the 21st spot with 40,796 minutes. Up next: Michael Jordan, who is at 41,010. That’s a 214-minute difference, which, at the 38 minutes per game Kobe is averaging, should take him less than six games to pass.
–It took Pau Gasol 16 games to have his third 20-point game this season. Only one other time in his career did it take him 10 or more games to get three 20-point games and that was in his rookie year. He scored 26 on November 21, 2001 vs Cleveland in his 10th game to get his third 20-point game. 
–Dwight Howard posted 21 points and 23 rebounds Friday against the Lakers to earn his fifth 20-20 game in Orlando’s first 15 games of the season. No NBA player has secured five 20-20s in his first 15 games of a season since at least ’85-86. (We have only basketball-reference.com to work through, so we’re not sure about day-to-day stats prior to that season.)
–Derek Fisher recorded 10 assists in a January 13 win against the Cavaliers. The last time Fisher had double-digit assists was when he recorded 11 on January 11, 2009 versus the Heat. He missed LeBron each time.
–Kevin Garnett is on the verge of joining the 3,000-foul club. KG had committed 2,995 regular-season fouls as of Friday’s games, which places him 64th all-time in the NBA. Elden Campbell is next on the list at 3,006.
–Three teams are shooting better than 40 percent from long range (Celtics at 42.7 percent, Heat at 40.6 percent, Magic at 40.1 percent). In the five seasons prior to this one, only two teams (’06-07 Suns at 40 percent, ’09-10 Suns at 41.2 percent) finished the regular season shooting at or above 40 percent from trey.
–I enjoyed this stat I tweeted about earlier in the week: There are just 10 players averaging 20 or more points this season. The last time an NBA season finished with anywhere near that total was ’65-66, when 11 players produced 20-plus points per game. (Brandon Jennings is hanging on a thread as of Saturday morning with a 19.9 points average.)
NBA Schedule Quirk of the Week
(The team arguably most screwed for the next week)
Memphis Grizzlies –The Griz started the next week of games with a 98-81 victory at Detroit on Friday. They play Saturday at home against Sacramento, take a day off then go to Golden State, to Portland the following night, then to L.A. to play the Clippers two nights later.
Honorable mention: Portland Trail Blazers. It’s a five games-in-six-days kind of week. Portland beat Toronto, 94-84, in T-Dot on Friday. They’re at Detroit Saturday, at home versus Sacramento on Monday, then host Memphis the following night and play in Oakland the night after that.
Insightful NBA Player Tweets of the Week
(Tweets unedited from how they were originally written)
Trevor Booker @Trevor_Booker
“Washing my spaghetti down with choc milk…too good”
Nazr Mohammed @NazrMohammed
“I love NYC but I hate how u can be so close to your destination yet so far away. 30 mins to go 5 miles SMH”
Chris Kaman @ChrisKaman
“Just got out of practice and heading into the woods with the rifle!”
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