Game 50 - Well, whattaya know - JKidd can play!

I can see it all now - Jason Kidd is auditioning for the Mavericks. He just pulled off one of the best performances he's had in years, at least since 2006. The Nets play the Mavs next, at home. He wants to show them they would be wise to get him.

Ok.

But the other side of this is that the Nets SHOULD beat Charlotte by 14, even at Charlotte. The Bobcats are not a good team. They are a bottom feeder. They are an expansion team looking for a reason for existence in the land of the Tarheels and Blue Devils.

The Nets SHOULD be among the East's elite. They SHOULD be 35-15 - they certainly have the talent.

I know - it was the estimable Lawrence Frank's stirring post game tirade in Orlando that brought out the sleeping giant, right?

Story line - Kidd has been dogging it all year, in order to get traded to a REAL contender. He sees what Boston did - got 3 perennial all stars - and figures he's got not chance in the dead end Izod Center, with a dead end team whose dead end ownership and management has done everything possible to discourage a fan base from remaining.

Ok.

So, then, it was JKidd who put the Nets in the position they've been in time after time this season, coming down to the last two minutes, losing close games at home that never should have been close, much less lost.

And I guess he's done it mostly from the bench, like when he visits EVERY GAME at the end of the first and beginning of the fourth, WITHOUT EXCEPTION. I guess he exerted his svengali to jinx his teammates from the foul line all those games they shot under 65% from the line. I guess it was his idea not to call a time out to throw cold water on those constant opponents' runs, which the great Lawrence Frank will tell you every NBA team makes, except his Nets, for some reason.

I guess the fans voted him into the All-Star game because they appreciate a guy who's thrown it in for the year.

And Jason is so smart - he's hiding these intentions by cranking out 12 triple doubles! See? Who can accuse him of dogging it if he's getting a triple double? Brilliant!

The Nets played the Celtics well for 3 quarters a few weeks ago. I was there. They dominated.

When they faltered, no help was to come from Lawrence Frank. He did not and does not know what to do. They faltered, and he let them.

They then went on a swoon. A nine game swoon. Coulda won 4 of them, but when it came time for coaching, for someone to remind them what they are made of and to help them out with good in-game decision making, he was as absent as the energy they lacked.

Maybe Kidd was auditioning tonite. Maybe that's where the energy and leadership came from. Old Frank said his will was palpable out there tonite. Clearly, the team responded to his will.

Well, I'll tell you what - I bet the team would respond to ANY leader's will. And I bet that if they had a coach capable of exerting HIS will on a game, they might respond, whether JKidd is there or not.

The Nets have stunk against good teams. They have stunk against the west. They have stunk against the Mavs in the Jason Kidd Era, as it is called, having gone 1-13 against them. They have stunk at home.

So, they play the Mavs next, at home, in a couple of days. This is set up to be yet another bad, bad loss. Maybe JKidd will be auditioning again, with Mark Cuban in attendance.

Here's another thought - maybe JKidd has already figured out that if the Gasol and Shaq deals got done and he's still hanging in the breeze, he ain't goin' nowhere. Maybe he figured that out a while ago. Maybe he's trying to show the esteemed Lawrence Frank what his team could be if he would only learn to coach in-game.

Let's see what happens on Sunday...

Game 49 - Not since the days of Butch Beard...

...have I seen such lousy, listless, dispirited basketball. Empty games in a cavernous arena.

Back then, the Nets had no players. Now we have uniforms.

I tuned into the game and the Nets were remarkably up, 30-22. They're outshooting the Magic 48-31%.

Not for long.

A 25-8 spurt dooms the Nets, who don't need much to roll over.

After the game, Frank says the team must defend the honor of the jersey, that that jersey has seen a lot of winning and proud moments, and the players need to honor that.

20-29 is not honor. It is a deep hole. Last year at this time, 22-27.

There is such sadness surrounding this team, I have not gone to the arena, nor have I tried to give away the tix.

I wish that if Kidd is to be traded that it happens sooner than later.

Game 48 - Starting to slide again

The Nets are not the only team to have just concluded a trade with the Grizzlies. The Lakers also did, and got Pau Gasol for basically nothing, and guess who the Nets play tonite?

Nonetheless, the Nets play them tough and at the half it's tied at 47. But they flub rebounds continually, giving the Lakers perhaps 5 2nd and 3rd chances, all of which they capitalize on.

The Nets go down by 4 after 3, and you think maybe, just maybe. And what a big win it would be! Especially with Gasol playing with them. And Kobe gets hurt and his performance is minimized.

But the Nets are a dispirited team, and lost by 15.

They play Orlando tomorrow, a good team. They are 20-28 now. Another loss is likely...

Game 47 - Oh well

The Nets just don't show up, down 7 after one and 17 at the half. They make a half hearted run in the 4th, getting to 9 under, but a bad call by the refs on what should have been a goal tending results in a 4 point swing, and before you know it, they're back down by 13.

It was a discouraging show, an indication that Kidd has given up on the team and the team has given up on him.

Word also has come that the Nets, belatedly, are trading Jason Collins to Memphis for the bust Stromile Swift. The estimable Lawrence Frank set up a play to start the game that resulted in an ally oop to Collins who stuffed it.

The only wonder is, why didn't you use that play earlier, genius?

Game 46 - Two in a row, and they break 20

The Nets beat a Miami team without Shaq or Haslem. They almost have their ***third*** win of the season of 10 points or better, but fall short.

They're now 20-26. It's not impossible, and if Kidd keeps it up and winds up not being traded, and keeps a professional attitude, they have a shot, particularly in a weak East, where they are percentage points out of the playoffs at present.

But upcoming are some tough games against good teams...

The Nets cannot afford another protracted losing streak.

Game 45 - The streak is over. Yay.

So the Nets come home and beat a bad Milwaukee team by 7. Y(awn)ay...

Even still, with 2 minutes to go, the game was tied.

A win is a win, and we'll take it.

Interlude - Knew it was coming, but didn't want to believe it.

So before the Minnesota "game", as it were, the news was Jason Kidd's agent has requested that he be traded to a team with a chance at winning a championship.

Could this be true?

There were rumors last year that Thorn was trying to trade Kidd to LA (a place JKidd said he hated on Michael Kay's Centerstage back in 2002) but those talks broke down, the trade deadline came and went, Kidd was still with the Nets and they rallied to make .500 and the playoffs, then eliminated the vastly overrated Raptors and with a good coach could have bounced the vastly overrated Cavs.

This year started out with Kidd saying it was the most talented team he had ever been on, with VC resigned and Curley due to come back from injury. 4-1 after 5...

When they got to 18-17 off a 7-1 tear I dared thought that perhaps they could be the 50 win team their talent suggests.

Instead, they are on a 0-9 tear, and if the loss to the lowly Wolves didn't convince you, the statement by Jason the next day that he did indeed want to be traded just took the air out of the balloon of the season.

It is unlikely that Kidd will be traded because Thorn won't just let him go and no team can really provide anything near equal value. How can you get equal value for the entire franchise?

If you think, like I do, that the Nets are a listless team, imagine no JKidd, the one player who plays at a high level game in game out.

And if he doesn't get his trade wish, the best we can hope for is yet another late season run, but even last year they were 21-23 at this point, compared with 18-26. It would have to be even more of a run, and it would have to start pretty much now.

Jason Kidd did what no other player has ever done - he took a moribund, not just team, but entire franchise, and brought them to the NBA Finals two years in a row, and were it not for a bum knee, it very well might have been 3. A piss poor coaching job cost them the title in 2003.

JKidd is the best all around player I've seen since Magic and Bird, and the stats say since the Big O. The great Michael Jordan never did what JKidd has done, and continues to do, for a franchise whose ownership has been jaded and stupid.

I don't blame him for wanting to leave. He has nothing to leave on the court.

But I will miss him dearly.