First Jim Stuckey, now Jason Kidd. Assuming that the Nets' announced trade yesterday of point guard Kidd to the Dallas Mavericks will go through after a stall, the two most public faces of the Atlantic Yards project--the executive who shepherded the project, and the star used to sell the team/arena--will have left the scene. The deal, which would bring guard Devin Harris and several other players, plus two first-round draft picks and cash, seems like a savvy move for the Nets, as commenters on NetsDaily and ESPN columnist John Hollinger suggest. Indeed, if the Nets are rebuilding, they have until at least 2011 (by my estimation) to prove it in Brooklyn.
Fungible parts
In developer Forest City Ratner's "Atlantic Yards permanent campaign," a Kidd trade is a reminder that the players, as in sports, are ultimately fungible. Kidd was deployed to mouth bromides at an 8/23/06 press conference (at right, with teammate Vince Carter, principal owner Bruce Ratner, and Borough President Marty Markowitz) before the public hearing on the AY Draft Environmental Statement and similarly at the 1/18/07 Barclays naming rights extravaganza.Kidd's much-publicized record of spousal abuse has nothing to do with his basketball skills, but still Ratner, in a 6/26/05 New York Times Magazine interview, went out of his way to puff the team:
The players are terrific. They are of good character. They are incredibly charitable. They are family-oriented. They have integrity.
Assuming Kidd departs, we'll see no more stories about his tempestuous divorce, his churchgoing, nor his image rehabilitation via Take a Net to School. No more Kidd posters selling season tickets at Brooklyn street fairs.
It'll be time to step up, Vince Carter.
If the trade does go through (at this moment it is up and the air because one of the Dallas players has the right not to okay it, my opinion is that for this year, atleast, the Nets will be very uncompetitive, making life very boring for their season ticket holders. There is a possibility that the trade gives them money room to build for the future; that may be the idea behind it---but basically, Ratner is telling his current ticket holders that they are dupes. How does this play in to his selling the "Brooklyn" Nets? Hopefully, it creates more apathy among those considering being season ticket holders when and the arena is scheduled to open.
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