Tag: Drazen Petrovic

Even as a dominant teenager on probably …

Even as a dominant teenager on probably the greatest non-American national team ever, Kukoc loved the group dynamic of sports. He experienced the powerful brew of friendship and chemistry with Dino Radja, Drazen Petrovic, Vlade Divac, and other stars in the former Yugoslavia. He sought that vibe in the NBA. Reliving the divide between Krause and the players hurts him now. “I wish Jerry were here to say his part of the story,” Kukoc said. “It’s easy to like Michael and Scottie and Dennis and Phil, and I like them all. I love them. Scottie was the ultimate team player. Michael will always, to me, be the best player ever. He changed the game. He made it global. Every player today should tip their hat to him. But you have to hear the other side. Jerry built the six-time champions. You have to give him credit.”

Ranking the top five shooting guards in Nets history

The Nets franchise has featured some impressive shooting guards through the years, including a hall of famer, and other soon-to-be.

In this new era of positionless basketball, shooting guards have fallen in a strange middle ground. Of course, “guard” is in the position’s title, but some shooting guards are closer to being small forwards than combo guards.

For instance, Joe Harris is a shooting guard, but he’s certainly not bringing the ball up the floor. Yet fellow Brooklyn Nets off-guard Caris LeVert could also play ball-handler as needed or even roll up to the three.

Those two both came to Brooklyn in 2016-17 and have put together some impressive work. But have they secured a seat among the franchise’s best shooting guards of all time? Nets Wire examined the point guards to wear a Brooklyn or New Jersey uniform through the years and selected the five best:

5. Joe Johnson

Credit: Anthony Gruppuso – USA TODAY Sports
Nets Stats: 14.7 PPG | 37.8 3-PT% | 3.4 APG

Johnson could have also fallen under the category of small forward, but his game fits in better with shooting guards.

That’s because Iso Joe was about one thing above all else: buckets.

Johnson’s highest scoring average over his four-year Nets career was 16.3 points per game — his first season in Brooklyn. But it was the next year that he was named an NBA All-Star, and shot 40.1% from 3-point territory.

RELATED: A look back at Joe Johnson, the ultimate isolation scorer

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“It seems to me that our players should …

“It seems to me that our players should go there: every club, every coach should be proud that they brought up people who play in the NBA. I trained many generations of players, and they all left – from Divac and Petrovic to Bogdanovic and Teodosic. Very happy for them. When the player is ready, let him leave for the NBA. Now very young players are leaving, who are being drafted from schools and universities”, Ivkovic mentions on the Europeans’ NBA invasion in recent years. “It is clear that it is very difficult for European clubs: their youth is leaving, and American players of a lower level are replacing them. The situation is difficult”.

Vince Carter’s Nets jersey should hang in the rafters of Barclays Center

Vince Carter has wowed fans with his dunks and other athletic feats throughout his storied career.

Vince Carter is going to be one of few players who has a legacy in which his lacking a championship will not be overly discussed.

After this season, Carter will have put on a show for 22 NBA seasons, which will give him the record of longest career in league history.  His nickname “Half Man, Half Amazing” might just be one of the most fitting nicknames in hoops history. Whether it was dunking over Frederic Weis in the 2000 Sydney Olympics, or wowing fans in his iconic 2000 Slam Dunk Contest performance, Carter has proven to be one of the most athletic players in NBA history.

Now, as he finishes his last season, he’s been praised by players such as Houston Rockets star James Harden. Carter got a standing ovation in December during his final game at Madison Square Garden.  On Sunday, he played his final game against the Brooklyn Nets, and he received a standing ovation.

Carter played for the Nets when they were in New Jersey, and as one of the franchise’s all-time best players, his jersey should hang in the rafters.

Despite not leading the team to any titles, Carter was one of the best hoopers of his generation.

After the Atlanta Hawks lost to the Nets on Sunday, Carter spoke on what it would feel like to have his jersey retired. Julius “Dr. J” Erving, Jason Kidd, Bill Melchionni, the late John Williamson, Buck Williams and the late Drazen Petrovic each have their Nets jersey retired.

“When you look up in the rafters and see the group of people that’s up there, if one day I get that opportunity, that honor, I’m OK with going up there with a guy who I looked up to in Dr. J and a great teammate like J-Kidd,” Carter said, per Michael Scotto of Bleacher Report. 

In five seasons with the Nets, Carter averaged 23.6 points per game, the highest among any of the teams he’s played for. According to Basketball Reference, Carter ranks third on the Nets’ all-time leading scorers list.

Carter, Kidd and Richard Jefferson were one of the most fun trios to watch in the mid 2000s. The group started playing together in the 2004-05 season, when Carter was traded to the team from the Toronto Raptors during the season.

With Kidd, the Nets had one of the best and smartest players ever as a floor general. As a fellow wing, Jefferson complemented Carter’s ability to score with his slashing ability. The group only made it as far as the Eastern Conference semifinals, but the three played exciting basketball.

Carter’s influence on the generation that followed is special. Nets star Kyrie Irving is evidence of that, as he spoke highly of Carter after Sunday’s game.

“That was a kid’s dream to go see Vince Carter and Jason Kidd and the New Jersey Nets play, but specifically Vince Carter,” Irving said, per Anthony Puccio of Nets Daily.  “He used to do some amazing things, man. It was incredible as a kid to watch.”

As one of the top scorers the league has seen, Carter is ranked No. 20 all-time in points, and currently he’s ranked fourth all-time in games played. A quality 3-point shooter throughout his career, he has shot 37.2% from deep.

In this day and age, hoops fans sometimes ring count. That is, sometimes a player’s legacy is tied too much to whether they won titles.

But Carter is different, and a big part of that is because his legacy consists of him being arguably the best dunker ever, along with his consistency. He averaged double figures in scoring from his rookie season in 1998 through the 2013-14 season.

Carter having his jersey potentially hanging in the rafters at Barclays Center would serve as a reminder of his greatness.

But unlike many other all-time greats, Carter won’t need any rings to prove how amazing he was.

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“One of the guys I really mourned was …

“One of the guys I really mourned was Drazen Petrovic,” he said. “Drazen was a cold cat, man. His whole swag, I loved it. It was tragic that he didn’t get a chance to fulfill the promise that he had.” Today, Hodges named Los Angeles Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard as his favorite player “by far” for his all-around impact. As for today’s shooters, Hodges pointed to Golden State’s duo of Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson as obvious picks but also expressed a fondness for Denver center Nikola Jokic and Dallas guard Luka Doncic.