Nets Insider Videos


Nets cruise past Spurs 128-116 in Harden's return from hamstring injury

 James Harden didn't miss a beat in his first action since leaving an April 5th contest against the Knicks after aggravating a lingering hamstring injury. Brooklyn's jack of all trades scored 18 points, dished out 11 assists, and snatched seven rebounds in 26 minutes. 

In his first back-to-back games of the season, Kevin Durant finished with 21 points, 7 assists and 7 rebounds in 29 minutes.




The  Nets control their own destiny for the number two seed in the Eastern Conference and if they win out they would edge out Milwaukee. There's still a path for them to topple the Sixers for the top overall seed if Philadelphia loses to Miami and it's final two contests both against Orlando and the Nets beat Chicago and Cleveland in their final two games of the regular season. 

That second scenario is not very likely but the fact that the Nets are still in the hunt with all the injuries and disruptions that have impacted the team, is impressive to say the least. 

Brooklyn Nets' James Harden will play Wednesday against Spurs, Kyrie Irving ruled out

 The Brooklyn Nets have announced that James Harden will return to action on Wednesday against the Spurs, but Kyrie Irving has been ruled out following the facial contusion he suffered during Tuesday nights 115-107 win over the Chicago Bulls. 




Brooklyn will only have two regular season games after Wednesday's meeting with San Antonio leaving the Nets big three not a lot of time to build chemistry before the start of the playoffs. 

Kevin Durant, Irving, and Harden are perennial All Stars with championship experience, but it has to be a little disconcerting that they can't stay on the court together healthy as a trio. 



Kyrie Irving exits Bulls game after taking elbow to the face from Nikola Vucevic

 Kyrie Irving left Tuesday night's game against the Chicago Bulls with just over 10 minutes left in the third quarter after taking an elbow to the eye from Bulls center Nikola Vucevic. 


The Nets have not issued an update on his status for tomorrow night's game against the San Antonio Spurs but he was immediately ruled out the rest of Tuesday night's contest. The team classified the injury as a facial contusion.



Back in 2019, Irving suffered an orbital bone fracture during one of his first few scrimmages upon signing with the Nets, and while Tuesday's injury is far from good news,  the hope is that the Nets point guard won't be out for a prolonged period, if at all. Brooklyn is expecting James Harden back in the lineup against the Spurs on Wednesday after hamstring problems have sidelined him the past few weeks.

 The Nets big three has only played seven games together and now Irving's status is up in the air just when Harden is returning to action 

Nets Potential Playoff opponents



If the playoffs ended today, the Nets would tangle with the winner of the Celtics/Hornets play-in tournament for the seventh seed. Nothing is guaranteed in the NBA, but it’s safe to say Brooklyn would like to avoid a clash with Brad Stevens and Boston, if possible. Even without Jaylen Brown, the C’s have been battle-tested and they are not your typical seventh seed. The Nets would like to avoid Boston (7) or Miami (6) in the opening round and hope that Milwaukee would have to contend with either.

The other team that could give Durant, Harden, Irving and company fits is Washington. The Wizards already beat the Nets twice this year and Bradley Beal’s scoring prowess along with Russell Westbrook’s triple-double capabilities make the electric duo a matchup to avoid. With no disrespect to the following club, Charlotte, the Nets would welcome a matchup with the Hornets over potential games against Miami or Boston. The Nets are in control of their destiny as they have four games left against Chicago, San Antonio, Chicago and Cleveland. Win out and they clinch the two seed and in all likelihood avoid the reigning Eastern conference champion Heat.

With Harden expected to return over the final four games, the must-win games start right now for Steve Nash and crew’s quest for a title.




James Harden holds key to Nets championship hopes



 The Brooklyn Nets made a huge splash during the 2019 free agency period by signing Kyrie Irving and and Kevin Durant with fans singing Sean Marks' praises for netting two of the league's premier scorers. While Durant's recovery from his Achilles surgery sidelined him for all of the 2019-2020 campaign, Irving dazzled in just 20 games before knee troubles curtailed his season. 


Now with Marks pulling another rabbit out of the hat by acquiring James Harden from the Rockets, Durant's former teammate and a close friend to Irving holds the key to the franchise's hope of winning its first NBA title and clinching its first finals berth since the 2002-2003 season. Brooklyn's Big Three has played just seven games as a complete trio with a combination of virus protocol, hamstring issues, load management and personal issues all among many reasons the talented stars have missed significant action this season 


Chief among the Nets' concerns is getting Harden back on the court healthy in time to ramp up for the playoffs. It's clear that without the team's true point guard, the Nets have wavered against the upper echelon teams in the league and that was no more obvious than in two straight losses to Milwaukee the past few days. 

The Nets are still many pundits' favorite to come out of the Eastern Conference and capture the franchise's first Larry O'Brien Trophy, but if those dreams are going to be realized, Harden needs to be at full strength and playing at an MVP-level as he during the first half of the season.  

Madden 21 Review: EA's Legendary Football Title Losing its Luster



  EA’s once-great football franchise is crumbling right before our very eyes. Gone are the days of Pat Sumerrall and John Madden in favor of ushering in the era of commentators Brandon Gaudin and Charles Davis. That should tell you all you need to know about the iconic football video game title’s fall from grace.

Full disclosure, I’ve been a Maddenite for the better part of the last two decades. From the days of Super Nintendo to PlayStation2 and every console in between, I’ve played the game on virtually all platforms and played through each year’s installment, too. So when I received a review copy of this year’s iteration for Xbox One, I had guarded optimism that the developers would start to move the franchise back in the right direction and get back to the game’s roots. By roots, I don’t mean bringing Madden and Summerall back into the fold with blocky polygon character models or adopting game cartridges.


Madden has been using the Frostbite engine since 2014, not coincidentally, the game has been in a steady freefall ever since. While I’ve been a loyal follower of the franchise, 2020 was the first time I seriously considered another football title could bump the legendary game off its high perch.


The world where it’s easier to complete a pass to Richard Sherman than it is Julio Jones is not a world I want to be living in, but Madden 21 creates this nightmarish scenario for players to endure. During online matches, I was convinced that my early turnover problems were going to become a thing of the past once I adjusted to the game physics. That was not the case. Every 50/50 ball seemed to go to the defender as one- handed interceptions, outstretched grabs from cornerbacks and ranging safeties scurrying from the far sideline to the middle of the field to secure a pick is the norm in this bizarro virtual football world. Madden 21 should come with a throwaway controller for those gamers who are as vexed and perturbed with the cornerback friendly, quarterback-hostile experience as I am.

 Despite the hair-pulling, maddening nature of the game, I still managed to climb into the top two percent of online players by featuring a steady diet of halfback draws, bubble screens and safe, quick passes to limit turnovers. With no vertical passing game to speak of and by capitalizing on the mistakes of opponents, Madden 21 becomes a game that is more about the throws you don’t make than the ones you do.


 Even with the arrival of the unrealistic Yard Mode, which is intended to mirror EA’s NFL Street, has minimal entertainment value. The X-Factor abilities allow players to possess superhuman athletic prowess, which makes an NFL Simulation into more of an arcade-like field. I even played an online game where yardage markers, boundary lines and endzones didn’t even exist. Glitches and faulty AI are aplenty. There’s a reason why hardcore fans of the franchise are starting to jump ship on this year’s version as the NFL’s exclusive football franchise really dropped the ball with Madden 21.

Overall Grade 6.5/10


Nets slated for first round playoff matchup with Raptors if NBA decides to forgo rest of regular season


The Brooklyn Nets currently sit in the seventh spot in the Eastern Conference and line up for a matchup with the defending Toronto Raptors. The rest of the NBA season is in serious jeopardy, but a reports surfaced today that the league could potentially see the Finals fall as far back as August and then start the 2020-2021 season on Christmas Day.

It's a strange scenario that many fans wouldn't find ideal, but is the product of the havoc that the COVID-19 pandemic has caused. The arrangement that would make the most sense for Adam Silver and company is to just start the playoffs when the league returns and get ahead of the game. If that was the case, Brooklyn would take on Toronto in what would be a daunting series for the Nets.

The issue would become how would players looking to shake rust off that haven't shot basketball in nearly two months return to playoff-caliber basketball albeit in potentially empty arenas. The other scenario is for the NBA to play five tune-out games that would count toward the standings, but shorten the length of the regular season therein allowing the teams to get their feet under them without causing the playoffs to carry too far into the summer months.

The current pandemic has thrown everyone for a whirl, but the idea of a Nets-Raptors matchup with an outside chance of Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant playing will excite even the most casual of basketball fans. 

Laughland: Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving might be ready to return to play for Nets before NBA returns


As basketball fans anxiously await the return of NBA basketball, Nets fans may see two of the team's star players back healthy before the NBA resumes games. With COVID-19 sweeping the globe, fans anxiously await for the death tolls to plummet and a gradual return to normalcy.

With some within the medical and scientific community indicating that COVID-19 could be present in society for a year or more, some NBA fans and players are simply hoping that the 2020-2021 season starts on time.

While many things are in the air in that regard, Nets' stars Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving are still nursing their way back to full health. With HSS essentially closed down due to COVID-19, it's had a deletorious impact on the standout duo's rehab from injury.

Durant would be one-year from his Achilles injury this June and Irving would be three-months out from shoulder impingement surgery that he underwent in March 3.

The likelihood that an NBA season will take place at all is shrinking by the minute as other countries have experienced multiple waves of outbreaks. The plan is to slowly start opening up the country and get the public back to some sense of normalcy, but the imminent threat of another outbreak makes it difficult for leagues to resume play with the possiblity that things could be shut back down.

If the 2019-2020 season does resume play, it's not out of the realm of possiblities that Irving and Durant could make an appearance afterall. 

Nets Sign Caris LeVert to Contract Extension


The Brooklyn Nets locked up another member of their young core by signing forward Caris LeVert to a three-year contract extension worth $52.5 million. 
LeVert, 25, will have the extension kick in beginning the 2021 season where he will make $16.2 million, $17.5 in 2022, and $18.8 million during the final year of the extension. 
The Nets look primed to be one of the best teams in the eastern conference over the next couple of years with players like Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, Spencer Dinwiddie, DeAndre Jodan, and now LeVert looking to usher in a new era for Brooklyn. 
LeVert entered the league in 2016 when he was drafted in the first round by the Nets out of the University of Michigan. Even though he played only 42 games last season due to an ankle injury, he showed promise for the Nets in limited action. 
LeVert was averaging a tick under 13 points-per-game before he was sidelined for the rest of the 2018-2019 season. 
The contract extension shows that General Manager Sean Marks, and the rest of the Nets brass, believes LeVert can be a crucial cog for the team going forward. The team also believes LeVert will be able to recover fully from his ankle injury, and build on what was his best season in the NBA up until his injury. 
The extension LeVert received was a well-deserved one because he improved during all three years of his career. With the ballooning of salaries in the NBA, getting LeVert for an average salary of slightly over $17 million/year will seem like a bargain when it kicks in beginning the 2021 season. 
The extension also gives LeVert a sense of security and will allow him to focus on recovering fully from his injury, and trying to help lead the Nets to their first NBA Championship in franchise history. 
LeVert should also see an increased role this season for head coach Kenny Atkinson’s squad with marquee free agent Kevin Durant being unable to play for the majority of the year, if he is even able to play at all. Durant suffered a torn Achilles in the 2019 NBA Finals which put his 2019-2020 season in serious doubt. 
If LeVert is able to build off last season, and fill in admirably during the absence of Durant, he will more than outplay the salary the Nets will be paying him this season and going forward. 
During the 2019-2020 season, LeVert will make just over $2.6 million. 
The Nets rewarded LeVert for his steady improvement all throughout his NBA career, and he will be staying in Brooklyn for the foreseeable future. 

Alibaba co-founder purchases full Nets ownership for record 2.35B







The Brooklyn Nets are going to be under new ownership once again as founder of the site Alibaba Joseph Tsai  is poised to purchase the team.

The inkling by Tsai to purchase the team is  not anything new, Tsai purchased a 49-percent share of the Nets from current owner Mikhail Prokhorov to the tune of $1 billion in 2017.
Now, with Tsai looking to purchase the remaining 51-percent of the team for $1.3 billion, the total price Tsai will have paid for the Nets will be a whopping $2.3 billion.

If this deal ends up going through the $2.3 billion will be the most ever paid for an American professional sports team.

This historic figure comes at a time where values for professional sporting teams are skyrocketing. Eight teams in the NBA are valued at over $1 billion.
Earlier this summer, Forbes valued the Nets at $2.3 billion, which makes them the sixth-most valuable team in the National Basketball Association.

According to the stipulations of the agreement when Tsai purchased 49-percent stake of the Nets in 2017, he reserved the right to purchase the remaining 51 percent before the 2021-2022 season.
For one reason or another, Tsai had decided to exercise his option two years early and add the Nets to his portfolio.

Tsai is purchasing what should be one of the most interesting teams in basketball over the next handful of years. Coming off a summer that saw the Nets sign the likes of Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, and DeAndre Jordan, in addition to a young core from last season, the Nets look to be a threat in the league for years to come.

Prokhorov purchased the Nets for under $400 million in 2009, and his imminent departure as team owner will be met with a sense of joy from Nets fans everywhere.

Prokhorov’s ten-year ownership stint will not be remembered positively in the annals of NBA history. 

Prokhorov only presided over three winning seasons during his stewardship, and the Nets had the third-worst record in the league over the past decade at 300-504.

Also, the Nets only were only able to win one playoff series under Prokhorov, which was in 2014 when they upended the Raptors in seven.

The Prokhorov tenure was rife with dysfunction from the sidelines all the way up to the front office. With signings of aging veterans like Gerald Wallace, Paul Pierce, and Kevin Garnett in addition to five coaches there are not many positive things to remember from Prokhorov’s time.
With the big news of the Brooklyn Nets being purchased by an individual that is excitied to do so, Nets fans hope to see the dysfunction of the last decade washed away as they ride the coattails of their dynamic duo of Durant and Irving to NBA supremacy for years to come.

What to Make of Nets 2019-2020 Schedule

The 2019-20 schedule was just released for the Brooklyn Nets, and along with its release comes a sense of optimism, excitement, and uncertainty for head coach Kenny Atkinson’s squad.
The Nets had a successful offseason by all accounts as they were able to sign three marquee free agents: Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, and DeAndre Jordan.
Durant was poached from the Western Conference champion Golden State Warriors, Irving comes to Brooklyn from the Boston Celtics, and Jordan spurned the cross-town rival Knicks to come to Brooklyn.
The Nets enter the 2019-2020 with higher expectations than they have had in years and are looking to build off last season that saw them notch the 6th spot in the Eastern Conference with a record of 42-40.
The Nets play 20 games on national television during the 2019-2020 season and begin their season against the Minnesota Timberwolves at the Barclays Center on Oct. 23, 2019.
Irving’s return to his former team, the Boston Celtics, will come on Nov. 27, 2019. Just two days later on Nov. 29, 2019 the Celtics will come to Brooklyn and Irving will have a home-and-home with the team he left just a few months ago.
Other marquee names for the Nets include:
Nov.1: vs. Houston
Jan. 15: @Philadelphia
Jan. 18: vs. Milwaukee
Jan. 23: vs. Lakers
Feb.5:  vs. Warriors
March 12: @Golden State
March 25: vs. Clippers
The biggest single day of the NBA year, Christmas Day, will not see the Nets in action. This is probably due to the unsure return of Durant, a former MVP and Finals MVP. The Nets instead play the Knicks at home on Dec. 26. 2019. With just a one day difference the game loses quite a bit of luster even though it is a battle for New York basketball supremacy. 
The question in the mind of Nets fans everywhere is when the Nets should expect to see Kevin Durant back on the floor and paired with Irving, Jordan, Caris LeVert, and the rest of the young core the Nets have.
Durant suffered a torn Achilles in Game 5 of the NBA Finals. Durant had surgery on June 12, 2019. The timetable for this sort of injury is 9-12 months, which means the best case scenario for Durant is mid-March, which means he will have approximately 15 games left to go in the regular season before the Nets would presumably begin the NBA Playoffs.
 An interesting nugget that coincides with a nine-month recovery is the Nets face off with the Warriors on March 12, 2019 on the road. It is not out of the realm of possibility that Durant has circled this game on his calendar as when he would like to make his return to the court.
The Nets training staff cannot let Durant step on the court until he is 100 percent physically able to do so. Nobody quite knows if Durant will ever return to his pre-injury form, but Nets fans are hoping he could show the league he is just as good as he ever was. 
The precedent for NBA players returning from Achilles injuries is not a positive one with players like Kobe Bryant, Brandon Jennings and Isaiah Thomas (Detroit Pistons) all either retiring or not able to regain their form post-injury.
Durant, and the Nets training staff, must be very smart in how they deal with Durant. Durant, who will be 31 this September, is still in his athletic prime and should not sacrifice the remaining years of his career for a 20 game cameo at the end of this season.
Durant tried to return early, and help his team win a third consecutive NBA Finals, and now he finds himself watching on the sidelines with a debilitating injury. 
A more plausible return for Durant is April 1, 2019, at home against Detroit. This will give him almost the entirety of the season to recover, and eight games to get his feet under him before the NBA Playoffs begin.
If Durant has any sort of setbacks, or uncertainty, the Brooklyn Nets will have to wait until October of 2020 before they will see Durant suit up for the Nets.




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