One of the most intriguing teams in all of sports will be in the spotlight on one of NBA TV’s franchise shows, with the Hard Knocks-style look at the new-look Nets of Deron Williams, Joe Johnson, Gerald Wallace, Kris Humphries and Brook Lopez leading a team that is prepared to challenge the Heat, Celtics, Pacers and the Big Apple-rival Knicks for one of the top spots in the Eastern Conference.
The Nets have a new roster, new arena, new city and a host of new challenges ahead of them. And we get to see it all up close and personal, the same way we did the Lakers in Season 1,the Celtics in Season 2 and the Nuggets last season. The season debut is Oct. 16 at 10 p.m. ET. And the series will include multiple shows on NBA TV as well as original webisodes NBA.com throughout the season.
Using the past seasons of the show as an indication, the Nets will be must-see-TV all season long:
“I think it’s great that the NBA will be documenting our inaugural season in Brooklyn as part of The Association,” said Nets’ three-time NBA All-Star and two-time Olympic gold medalist Deron Williams said in a statement released by the league.
HANG TIME NEW JERSEY — The real games don’t start until Oct. 30, but there will be plenty of chances to catch a glimpse of new faces in new places during the NBA preseason, a 22-day, 115-game schedule released Thursday afternoon.
Basketball fans in Fresno will get a treat when Steve Nash makes his Lakers debut on Sunday, Oct. 7 against the Warriors (though Dwight Howard might not be ready by then). A few hours earlier, Ray Allen will play his first game with the Heat in Atlanta. Andrew Bynum, meanwhile, will have to wait until an Oct. 11 in Orlando (of all places) to get in his first action with the Sixers.
Allen will have a great opportunity to build some off-the-court chemistry with his new teammates when they travel across the world, as part of the league’s slate of nine international games featuring 10 teams. Allen’s former team actually tips off the preseason with a game in Istanbul, Turkey on NBA TV.
NBA Europe Live presented by BBVA
Oct. 5 — Boston at Fenerbahce Ulker (NBA TV) – Istanbul, Turkey
Oct. 6 — Dallas at Alba Berlin (NBA TV) – Berlin, Germany
Oct. 7 – Boston at Emporio Armani Milano (NBA TV) – Milan, Italy
Oct. 9 — Dallas at FC Barcelona Regal (NBA TV) – Barcelona, Spain (more…)
HANG TIME NEW JERSEY – If you need to take a break from watching the Olympics, NBA TV has got your back.
As the U.S. Team is beating up on Tunisia and Nigeria, NBA TV will be televising a bunch of classic games, from the past and from this past season, this week. So set the TiVo or DVR or just watch to see some hoops at its best.
First on Monday, we’ve got four big scoring nights from the 80s, featuring God disguised as Michael Jordan. Then, on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, it’s the top 10 games of the 2011-12 season, featuring Kobe Bryant, Jeremy Lin, Kevin Love, Rajon Rondo, and Game 4 of The Finals.
OKLAHOMA CITY – For all the criticism he’s taken over the years from all corners about all things, Isiah Thomas has a right to be upset about not being a part of the greatest collection of basketball stars ever assembled.
And that’s also why his Isiah’s Twitter response, some 20 years later of course, resonates with me:
“Today, like all Americans, I congratulate the Dream Team on their anniversary. I am proud of my career in the NBA and have fond memories of going head to head with all the members of the Team. I can’t speak to the selection process as I wasn’t involved. But 20 years later, their gold medal is still a momentous achievement.”
Even if Thomas is as bitter as any one of us would be if we’d have been snubbed for what could have been the most magical moment of our career, the fact that he chose to take the higher road makes it much easier to digest.
HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS – We should apologize in advance for overloading your basketball senses with one of the most jam-packed Hang Time Podcasts of the season.
We tackle everything from Russell Westbrook‘s surge to the Thunder’s chances to win it all to the chances of Anthony Davis being an immediate factor in the NBA to what’s in store for Vinny Del Negro and the Los Angeles Clippers to why in the world one of our favorite analysts was rocking that “Elevator Ernie” Halloween costume on Fan Night last night on NBA TV.
– To download the podcast, click here. To subscribe via iTunes, click here, or get the xml feed if you want to subscribe some other, less iTunes-y way.
HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS – With the 11th hour additions of both Jeremy Lin and Norris Cole, the BBVA Rising Stars Challenge draft got an extra dose of last-minute drama from the game’s honorary commissioner, TNT’s Kenny Smith.
By snagging both of the late additions to go along with No. 1 overall pick Blake Griffin and rookie point guard sensation Ricky Rubio, Shaquille O’Neal nailed his first ever draft (he showed up wearing the “Black Pat Riley” t-shirt) and Team Shaq goes into All-Star Weekend with the clear advantage over TeamChuck (Barkley).
Team Chuck has the sort of balance you strive for when putting together a team for the grind of an 82-game (or 66-game) regular season. But Team Shaq has the star power at guard, point guard especially, that you need to win games like the one we’ll see on All-Star Friday night in Orlando.
That didn’t stop Barkley from talking smack after he passed over Lin for a rookie point guard sensation of his own in Kyrie Irving with his first pick.
“It wasn’t very difficult [to pass on Jeremy Lin] to be honest because [Lin's] only been playing for a week and it’s been a fantastic week,” Barkley said. “But Kyrie Irving is terrific and he’s going to hand it to [Lin] and if Ricky Rubio wants some…he can come get some too.”
You’ve got to ride the hot hand Chuck. And no one in basketball is hotter right now than Lin.
Team Shaq didn’t even get the endorsement of NBA TV’s Dennis Scott, Shaq’s best friend and former Orlando Magic teammate. “As I go through the [rosters], at first I thought Shaq had the upper hand but he has too many point guards,” Scott said. “Shaq has more playmakers but Charles has more finishers…I think Charles may have the upper hand.”
Et tu 3D?
Being the long-range bomber that he was (and remains, to this day) 3D should know better than to bet against the guys who will have control of the ball throughout the game. Team Chuck’s bigs will need someone to get them the ball. All of the best playmakers other than Irving and John Wall will be working for Team Shaq that night.
Mark it down, we’re predicting a big win for Team Shaq that night!
HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS – The All-Star reserves have been announced. Some wrongs were made right (LaMarcus Aldridge) while other wrongs remain (Josh Smith).
But making the All-Star team as a reserve is a complex issue that required further examination, which leads us to Episode 68 of the Hang Time Podcast.
We enlisted the services of former Michigan State, 1998 NBA All-Star and current NBA TV analyst Steve Smith to help make sense of a process that often times makes none. After all, Smitty played in just that one All-Star game during his stellar 14-year career, despite playing at an All-Star level for the bulk of his career.
But when you’re fighting for a berth at guard in the Eastern Conference with the likes of Reggie Miller, Penny Hardaway, Joe Dumars, Latrell Sprewell and others during the Michael Jordan era these sorts of things happen.
We also chatted All-Star reserves, Jeremy Lin and the overall state of the game with Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports, a Bay Area native and current resident. Spears lived in Boston when the Knicks’ point guard sensation (for the past three games at least) was running the show at Harvard, and even though he’d never heard of Lin back then and never saw the Crimson play, he’s “all-Lin” for the new face of the global game — who just happens to share Spears’ Bay Area roots.
– To download the podcast, click here. To subscribe via iTunes, click here, or get the xml feed if you want to subscribe some other, less iTunes-y way.
HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS – A healthy debate is good for the emotional and mental health of know-it-alls the likes of which you’ll find here at the hideout.
That theory extends to friends of the Hang Time Podcast as well, and is what makes Episode 66 so much fun. We’re debating all things — is Chauncey Billups still deserving of his Mr. Big Shot nickname, what’s the best way to do business in today’s NBA, Blake Griffin or Kevin Love, and who is more deserving a spot in the Slam Dunk contest, Josh McRoberts or Jeremy Evans?
You name the debate and we’re having it with special guests:
– Grantland‘s Jonah Keri made his HTP debut, complete with, as he put it, some “Chauncey-bashing, Celtics fandom & roster-building talk”. We even talked a little baseball with Keri, the author of “The Extra 2%,” and proud Montreal native who now resides in (or at least remarkably close to) the same Denver neighborhood Billups grew up in.
– Former Utah Jazz forward Matt Harpring, who tormented Georgia fans like Lang for years while starring at Georgia Tech, helped us see the light on Griffin-Love debate, and talks about what makes the Jazz so special right now — and why Evans needs to be in a dunk contest near you soon. An analyst on Jazz television broadcasts who also can be spotted on NBA TV‘s airwaves from time to time, Harpring provides an intriguing breakdown of one of the league’s surprise teams.
For all that and our reflections what’s going on in the NBA at the quarter pole …
– To download the podcast, click here. To subscribe via iTunes, click here, or get the xml feed if you want to subscribe some other, less iTunes-y way.
HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS – I suppose the easy way of looking at the Philadelphia 76ers these days would be to scan the Eastern Conference standings and act all shocked and surprised that this crew is sitting in the No. 2 spot. (Seriously, check for yourself. They’re holding down the No. 2 spot.)
It feels like there might be something much more substantial going on with the Sixers than just early season good vibrations. Winning nine out of 10 games during any stretch of the season is something to talk about. And the Sixers remain just one of four teams – San Antonio, Chicago and Indiana are the others — yet to lose a home game this season. (Returning your top 11 players from a year ago does wonders in a season that could be defined, to an extent, by the compressed schedule.)
But if we lost our beloved game for five months so teams could build a sound foundation from the ground up (with solid drafting, shrewd free agent moves, wise spending and the flexibility to nurture your own nucleus), it’s not a stretch to say that the Sixers embody the new model for a franchise aiming to move up in the pecking order.
Sure, they have a couple of robust contracts (Elton Brand and Andre Iguodala) on their books, but everything else is more than manageable. They have drafted well (Jrue Holiday, Thaddeus Young, Lou Williams, Evan Turner, Nikola Vucevic) the last few seasons and added the right pieces via trades (Spencer Hawes, Jodie Meeks, Andres Nocioni) and free agency (Tony Battie). And they have cohesion as a group — Williams, a reserve, leads them in scoring (16.2) — that has to be the envy of other franchises dreaming about chasing a playoff spot.
HANG TIME NEW JERSEY BUREAU – It’s been exactly six months since we’ve seen live NBA basketball, but the drought is about to end. The preseason tips off on Friday. And while the action is bound to be a little sloppy, we’re all salivating at the thought of seeing our teams back in action.
And NBA TV has got you covered, televising 10 preseason games over the course of six days, beginning with No. 1 pick Kyrie Irving‘s first game in an NBA uniform.
Here’s the full NBA TV preseason schedule (all times EST), which includes 18 of the 30 teams…
Friday, Dec. 16
Cleveland @ Detroit, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, Dec. 17
New York @ New Jersey, 2 p.m.
San Antonio @ Houston, 8 p.m
Sacramento @ Golden State, 10:30 p.m.
Sunday, Dec. 18
Oklahoma City @ Dallas, 7:30 p.m.
Monday, Dec. 19
Atlanta @ Charlotte, 7 p.m.
LA Clippers @ LA Lakers, 10:30 p.m.
Tuesday, Dec. 20
Washington @ Philadelphia, 7 p.m.
Wednesday, Dec. 21
Miami @ Orlando, 7 p.m.
LA Lakers @ LA Clippers, 10:30 p.m.
