Vince Carter is in Macao with the Brooklyn Nets, flying into the Chinese gambling capital on the team plane. The team tweeted out his picture arriving at their hotel…
VC will be working with Taobao 88 VIP,
Alibaba’s exclusive membership program that caters to the highest spending consumers on Taobao, the Alibaba-owned online shopping platform. Taobao 88 VIP is the presenting sponsor for the NBA China Games. One of the VIP perks will be is meet-and-greet with the Hall of Famer. He will also moderate a panel Sunday that will include Joe Tsai, Patrick Dumont, the Dallas Mavericks principal owner as well as soccer legend and Brooklyn resident David Beckham. (Dumont is also part of the Adelson family that owns the Venetian Macao where the games will be played.)
As he was rushing to Newark Airport to board the Nets chartered A360, VC spoke with Brian Lewis of the Post about the coming Nets season, referring to his former team, as Lewis notes, as “us.” His message to fans about this season was simple: be patient: the rebuild will come in phases, “small wins,” including building a culture.
“So you have to be literally step-by-step, let’s be patient, small wins,” Carter told Lewis. “And that’s what in my opinion is what’s missing in the game when you’re dealing with young, young teams like where we are as far as the Nets. Yeah, there’s no championship right now in sight, so let’s just do small wins, let’s just gather our information, let’s gather the group that we need to build the culture to move forward.”
Carter also said that he has already seen one big win in the phase-by-phase Nets rebuild: the hiring of Jordi Fernandez who he praised while also noting fans should have patience with the second year coach.
“I’ve been a fan of Jordi, of his approach,” said VC. “So that’s what I think would be a successful season, because it’s like, ‘OK, now we have this. What is the next phase?’ Because I feel like this is a phase thing. Will the organization, will the fans, will us on the other side, have the patience to do so? Because that’s not the way it is in sports anymore: Having patience and building, you know what I’m saying? They’re in that situation, in my opinion.”
Carter may have implied this phase of the rebuild is about tanking but he also offered some hope for fans, particularly some of the Nets’ veterans, this season. He even suggested that Cam Thomas, playing on a qualifying offer, could be part of a team core going forward.
“Cam [Thomas], he has the ability to to be one of those guys — young, still trying to find his way, but this is the big year for him,” he said. “And I think [Michael] Porter, his opportunity, he has a fresh start. So [you want to] give yourself something to build around. I feel like when you have a bunch of pieces, in a bunch of different places, you’re not looking up, like, ‘Damn, we can’t even get a group together to look up or to look forward to.’ And I think that’s what they’re establishing.”
As for the rookies, Carter had one piece of advice for the Nets brass: play them.
“I’m going to say this in general, I want to see them all have their opportunity, because like I say, it’s just now you’re seeing what you have and seeing what you get out of them,” Carter said. “And it’s a process that is going to be taxing, grueling, and is going to require patience.
“First-round picks, you have a lot of guards, so there is going to be competition: Who is willing to maximize their opportunity? Because this is an opportunity for a lot of people at the end of the day to get minutes, just be established in a role and be established moving forward.”
Lewis also revealed that Carter will not be part of the YES Network lineup. He’ll working with Noah Eagle and others on NBC Sports broadcasts of NBA games.
- The silver lining Vince Carter sees in what could be another long Nets season ($) – Brian Lewis – New York Post
