(Getty Images) Paul Pierce plans some sightseeing as Andrei Kirilenko & Co. try to get in gear for Thursday's game.
LONDON –- No sleep till Brooklyn? Try no sleep in London.
The Nets went straight into practice Tuesday morning after their
trans-Atlantic trip, and more than a few members of the contingent
confessed to fatigue as they prepare for Thursday’s game with the
Atlanta Hawks in the British capital.
But, said
Paul Pierce, shut-eye can wait.
The veteran has made this long-distance journey before, for a preseason matchup with the
Boston Celtics
in 2007. Although some might privately grumble about having to divert
overseas in the middle of what has become a tougher than expected
season, Pierce's sightseeing schedule is already mapped out.
“You
cherish every time you get to be places you don’t know,” he said. “Even
though I’ve been a couple of times, it’s been six, seven years since I
was here. I probably will go to the London Eye, check out Big Ben, take a
couple of pictures."
There is little opportunity to be idle. The NBA will use what has
become an almost annual trip to press the flesh with sponsors and roll
out the kind of offcourt activities normally reserved for the All-Star
Game.
That means VIP receptions, a NBA Cares clinic and assorted events
designed to promote the league to a British audience that still ranks
basketball far below soccer on the popularity list.
Yet this game -- at the 19,000-capacity 02 Arena -- sold out within
24 hours, a quicker pace than on the Nets’ last visit to face the
Toronto Raptors in 2011.
And there is still talk that, one day, there will be a European
Division with franchises in cities like London, Paris, Madrid and
Moscow.
“The growth of the international fans has come because of the
international players,” Pierce said. “The more and more players you see
from international parts of the world, the more the fan base of the NBA
grows. That’s really the biggest part of it; you have players from
China, from Germany, from all over the world.
“When you have that type of culture in the NBA, it spreads. I can’t
even tell you how many players from different countries there are in the
NBA. Just in this team alone, we have four, five, six. That says a lot
about the way the game’s going.”
Still, some remain skeptical about the concept of fulfilling what
was a long-term vision of outgoing NBA commissioner David Stern by
adding teams outside North America.
Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov has extensively promoted the Brooklyn
brand in his native Russia, mirroring much of the outreach undertaken by
the
Houston Rockets when
Yao Ming opened a door into China.
One-off regular-season contests, TV deals, jersey sales? Simple. But frequent flyer miles to Europe? Not so fast.
“I don’t think it’s realistic only because of the traveling,” Nets forward
Andrei Kirilenko
said. “Maybe if it’s going to be a whole division, like the Euroleague
is a division for the NBA, like the West or Eastern Conference -- so
once a year you go to another continent and play three games there and
then come back and adjust, maybe it's going to work.
“But it’s definitely not going to work coming to London then coming back. It’s physically impossible.”
ALL BUSINESS: Rested or not, Jason Kidd put his
team through a light practice Tuesday at London’s Imperial College at
what was the equivalent of breakfast time in New York in a bid to get
his team quickly acclimated to British time (five hours ahead of Eastern
Standard Time).
Neither
Brook Lopez nor
Deron Williams have joined the traveling party with assistant coach John Welch (personal reasons) also remaining in the United States.
Williams will continue to get treatment on his injured ankle, but
Kidd has yet to determine whether the All-Star will be available when
Brooklyn returns to face the Knicks on Monday at Madison Square Garden.
“He’s going through his rehab, and we’ll see where he’s at when we get back,” the Nets head coach told reporters.
With five wins out of their past six, the one thing Kidd will hope
his players have not lost en route is that momentum as they look to
match their victory over Atlanta on Jan. 6.
Their loss Saturday to the Raptors apart, there is a feeling among
the coaching staff that greater consistency in the rotation will be
vital in making up lost ground in the Eastern Conference playoff race.
And,
Joe Johnson
added: “We’ve kind of figured out some minor things and to roll with
what we’ve got. And we’ve been doing a pretty good job of guys helping
one another on both ends of the floor. We’re just trying to develop some
kind of cohesiveness, just trying to string some wins together.”
The role of
Shaun Livingston in filling the void left by Williams’ latest injury could prove vital.
The eighth-year guard struggled against the Raptors, notching just
eight points and three assists, but he has been a steady hand during
Brooklyn’s resurgence, featuring alongside Johnson, Pierce and Kirilenko
at various times as Kidd has shuffled his lineup.
“It’s been fun because he’s a different threat,” Johnson said. “He’s
a different point guard, a big point guard who’s pass-first but who can
really score the basketball.
“He has a mismatch every night, and he helps us all out with it
because he draws so much attention by getting in the paint and making
easy plays, making the guys around him better.” (credit ESPN)
