SportsAgentBlog.com | Sports Agent News » new jersey nets

NBA: Atlantic Division Previews

Darren Heitner — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 20:00:57 +0000

SportsAgentBlog.com will be involved in blogger previews for the 2008 NBA season. We covered the Miami Heat last year and will do so again this go around. In the meantime, enjoy the Atlantic Division previews..

Boston Celtics

Jeff Clark: CelticsBlog.com

Jim Weeks: Green Bandwagon

FLCeltsFan: LOY’s Place

John Karalis: Red’s Army

Dustin Chapman: Celtics 24/7

New Jersey Nets

Dennis Velasco: About Basketball

New York Knicks

Joey: Straight Bangin’

Seth Rosenthal: Posting and Toasting

Philadelphia 76ers

Dannie & Pete: Recliner GM

Jon Burkett: Passion and Pride

Toronto Raptors

Franchise: RaptorsHQ.com

Ryan McNeill: Hoops Addict

Cuzzy: Cuzoogle

Also see links to all the previews at CelticsBlog.com

NBA Europe Live

Zak Kurtz — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 15:00:08 +0000

As if the NBA and its players have not received enough European and foreign press already, the NBA has set up its NBA Europe Live tour again for this upcoming preseason. Michael Beasley and the Heat will start the tour off in Paris against the New Jersey Nets. Chris Paul and the New Orleans Hornets are set to play two games in Europe in their preseason. The Hornets will face the Washington Wizards on October 14 at the O2 World in Berlin, Germany. N.O. will end the NBA Europe Live tour at Palau Sant Jordi in Barcelona, Spain on October 17th, before opening up against the Golden State Warriors. The New Jersey Nets, Miami Heat, and Washington Wizards will also play preseason games in Barcelona, Berlin, London and Paris in October as part of an event hosted by EA SPORTS™.

Last year’s NBA Europe Live games drew more than 10.3 million viewers and 75,000 spectators. This is the third consecutive year that NBA teams are heading overseas to play. The games originally were a way to expand the influence of the NBA and attract foreign players and viewers. After the USA played China in their opening round Olympic game, you could see that It certainly did just that in China. The Chinese love the NBA and its stars, and have made Yao Ming a national hero and spokesman.

The recent splurge of NBA players heading overseas only shows how competitive the NBA is. Athletes leave the league either for financial reasons or because they can play more and dominate overseas. They have a completely different role than they did in the NBA. The NBA is still a great goal for many foreign players and will remain to be the ultimate platform for basketball players worldwide. Despite the different rules, the level of play is clearly the highest and winning an NBA ring is valued more than even an Olympic medal to some ballers.

King Of The Big Apple

Zak Kurtz — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 22:40:16 +0000

Only two years remain on LeBron James’s contract with his hometown Cleveland Cavaliers, and rumors are already starting to brew about the possibility of King James moving to the big apple. The Knicks appear to be making room on their expensive team with the intentions of adding James’ large contract demands. Knick fans even have a website called NYC 4 Lebron, which campaigns for him to become a Knick in the near future. King James already has a shoe coming out that is navy with white pinstripes and has New York written all over them They even have the Yankees logo on the inside.

LeBron’s contract runs out after the 2011 season, but he has an opt-out clause in 2010, which would make him an unrestricted free agent (Just like Baron Davis’s recent situation). Putting LeBron on the open market would certainly cause a lot of teams to drop everything and show his agent the money (After firing Aaron Goodwin, James is now represented by Leon Rose and CAA). Just about every team in the NBA would love to have LeBron’s name on their roster, but with two years still left on his contract, the only place James has mentioned is New York.

James was recently in New York with Team USA Basketball for a press shoot and pep rally. Nike was also present to introduce the new line of Team USA Basketball shoes and team gear. It was at this press shoot that James made the comment that New York was his favorite city. He was then asked what his favorite borough was. The all-star and future NBA Hall of Famer then answered the tough question by choosing Brooklyn.

His Brooklyn answer might not be a big deal to most of us, but when the New Jersey Nets announced that Brooklyn is the proposed future home of its new arena, Knicks fans understood the implications. James is also a good friend of Nets co-owner and artist ,Jay-Z, however the Garden has always been one of his favorite arenas to play in.

With all the banter about New York in the future, we can only speculate that James is on the move from Cleveland…the only question is where. Where do you think LeBron will end up?