NJ Nets Selling Other Teams' Stars

The New Jersey Nets are running this strange promotion for the upcoming season. You get a Nets jersey with the opposing team's star player's jersey on the reverse side.

I'd like to hear Anthony Sullivan pitch this to me. maybe then it'll sound like a good idea.

"Not only will you get Jarvis Hayes' jersey. Turn it around... and it's LeBron James! You can wipe your tears with the New Jersey side, and root for a winning team on the reverse side!

But that's not all!

We'll throw in an Adam Silver bobblehead at no extra cost. You just pay shipping and handling."

Not even the late, great Billy Mays could sell this to me. Well... maybe he could. But that's besides the point.

First of all, going to the IZOD Center is a chore in itself. Second, why would any New Jersey fans (and I stress 'New Jersey') want to come to any games? Forget about the team being bad. But with everything that the Nets' front office is doing to distance the team from the state of New Jersey and the IZOD Center makes to move to Brooklyn seem like a done deal.

First the words "New Jersey" are taken off the away uniforms. Then in the preseason schedule, the Nets don't play at the 'ZOD.

Honestly, I was going to report on something similar earlier this summer. The Nets, on their website, had been promoting "The Stars of the NBA", not their own stars. LeBron James and Kevin Garnett were featured in that ad, I believe. But lastly, it had the Nets' own superstar Devin Harris.

It's just shameful. But like I've said many times: what selling point does New Jersey have over anywhere else, geographically speaking? Forget about the poor front office moves or the dearth of serious talent. But New Jersey isn't a sexy place to go. What else can they do but advertise for LeBron and Kobe and Garnett?

This has to suck for true Nets fans.


--Max Caster