Brooklyn Nets Blog – Page 85 – NBA Blog

Nets keep Armon Johnson for rest of season

The New Jersey Nets have signed guard Armon Johnson for the remainder of the season, Nets General Manager Billy King announced today. Per team policy, terms of the contract were not released.

Johnson, who signed a 10-day contract with the Nets on April 9, has played in five games, averaging 4.4 points in nine minutes per game. The 6-3 Nevada product has scored a season-high six points three times, most recently vs. New York on 4/18.

Prior to joining the Nets, Johnson started the 2011-12 season with Portland appearing in one contest before being assigned to the Idaho Stampede of the D-League. In six games with the Stampede, he averaged 11.0 points, 4.5 rebounds and 6.8 assists in 27 minutes. He was recalled on January 15 before being waived by Portland on February 27.

Basketball Wives star Jennifer Williams sues castmate`s personal assistant over slap

“Basketball Wives” star Jennifer Williams is filing a lawsuit Wednesday accusing a Manhattan woman of a flagrant foul for viciously slapping her face during a taping of the reality show.

Williams, ex-wife of NBA player Eric Williams, also has filed a complaint with the state attorney’s office in Florida, said lawyer Sanford Rubenstein.

“Violence used against any person is wrong but when a woman hits another woman it sets a horrible example for young girls everywhere,” Williams told the Daily News.

“I choose to use the justice system to fight back,” she said in an exclusive interview.

The defendant, Nia Crooks, is a personal assistant to “Basketball Wives” co-star Evelyn Lozada. Crooks belted Williams while VH1 cameras were rolling Jan. 21 in the presidential suite of the Gulfstream Park racetrack in South Florida.

— Reported by John Marzulli of the New York Daily News

Jayson Williams released from jail

Retired NBA star Jayson Williams was freed from jail Friday after serving eight months for drunken driving in New York and 18 months before that in New Jersey on charges stemming from a limo driver’s shooting death.

“I am eager to see my daughters, my mother and siblings and make amends for what they’ve been through, the former New Jersey Nets star said through his manager. “Start my life over with God being first and in the center of everything I do.”

Williams drove his SUV into a tree in lower Manhattan in 2010, a week after he accepted a plea deal stemming from the 2002 shotgun death of a chauffeur in his New Jersey mansion. His manager and attorneys have said he has since attended Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, gone through counseling and taught Bible study.

Williams had a six-year, $86 million contract with the Nets before a leg injury forced him to retire in 2000. Two years after he left the sport, he killed driver Costas Christofi with a 12-gauge shotgun while showing it to friends, having failed to check the weapon’s safety mechanism before snapping the gun closed.

— Reported by the Associated Press

NBA approves relocation of Nets to Barclays Center in Brooklyn

The NBA Board of Governors today unanimously approved the relocation of the Nets to Barclays Center in Brooklyn. The vote by the NBA teams was held at the NBA Board of Governors meeting in Manhattan.

The Brooklyn Nets will play in the new 18,200-seat Barclays Center on Atlantic and Flatbush avenues at the start of the 2012-13 NBA season.

Nets principal owner Mikhail Prokhorov and Barclays Center developer and majority owner Bruce Ratner issued the following joint statement:

“We would like to express our heartfelt thanks to David Stern and the NBA team owners for their role in making the Nets’ move to Brooklyn a reality. Barclays Center will give the Nets a state-of-the-art new home and, together, we will give Brooklyn the great sports and entertainment experience it so deserves. We are looking forward to the opening of Barclays Center on September 28 and to the start of the next NBA season as the Brooklyn Nets.”

Spencer Hawes steps up, 76ers beat Nets

Center Spencer Hawes came off the bench for the first time and a scored a season-high 19 points to lead the slumping Philadelphia 76ers to a 107-88 victory over the New Jersey Nets on Tuesday night.

The win snapped a four-game losing streak and was only the fifth in 15 games for Philadelphia (30-27), giving it a half-game lead over the Knicks (29-27) for the No. 7 seed in the Eastern Conference. Milwaukee (28-29) is 1 1/2 games behind the Knicks.

The loss eliminated the Nets (21-38) from playoff contention for the fifth straight season.

Philadelphia got a big game from its bench, with Lou Williams adding 20 points and Thaddeus Young 19.

Kris Humphries had 20 points and 10 rebounds for New Jersey. Deron Williams added 14 points, six rebounds and five assists on a night that he was hounded by Philadelphia’s Andre Iguodala.

The Nets were without forward Gerald Wallace, who strained his left hamstring, in the win over Cleveland on Sunday night.

— Reported by Tom Canavan of the Associated Press

Nets sign guard Armon Johnson to 10-day contract

The New Jersey Nets have signed free agent guard Armon Johnson to a 10-day contract, Nets General Manager Billy King announced today.

Johnson (6-3, 195), started the 2011-12 season with Portland appearing in one contest before being assigned to the Idaho Stampede of the D-League. In six games with the Stampede, he averaged 11.0 points, 4.5 rebounds and 6.8 assists in 27 minutes. He was recalled on January 15 before being waived by Portland on February 27.

The University of Nevada product was selected in the second round of the 2010 NBA Draft (34th overall) by Portland. Johnson appeared in 38 games as a rookie in 2010-11, averaging 2.9 points, 1.0 rebound and 1.2 assists in seven minutes per game. In 39 career games, he holds averages of 2.9 points, 1.0 rebound and 1.2 assists in seven minutes.

Gerald Green scores 32, Nets beat Cavs in OT

Gerald Green scored a season-high 32 points, including a clutch 3-pointer with 36.7 seconds left in regulation and a high-flying dunk in overtime, leading the New Jersey Nets to a 122-117 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Sunday night…

Anthony Morrow scored 24 points, Deron Williams had 18 points and 10 assists and Kris Humphries added 16 points and 11 rebounds as New Jersey finished with its highest scoring total of the season—topping the 115 in a loss to Denver on Jan. 11.

Antawn Jamison scored a season high-tying 34 points, Lester Hudson had 26 and Alonzo Gee added 22 points and 11 rebounds for Cleveland, which lost for the 10th time in 11 games and the 13th in their last 15. Tristan Thompson had 15 points and 15 rebounds.

The teams traded the lead seven times in the final 5 minutes of regulation before Green gave the Nets a 109-106 lead with his 3-pointer. However, Hudson sent the game to overtime with a fall-away 3 with just 0.3 seconds left.

— Reported by the Associated Press

Nets GM Billy King says Nets are headed in right direction

The Nets general manager has been all in from the beginning, trying all season long to leverage Dwight Howard’s obvious desire to play for the Nets into convincing the Orlando Magic to trade the six-time All Star to New Jersey. And when that fell apart, well, then, King went all in on trying to convince Deron Williams that even if the team doesn’t still end up trading for Dwight Howard, it will still be worth the All-Star point guard’s while to re-sign with the Nets and move to Brooklyn with the team next season.

Getting Gerald Wallace — and potentially giving up this year’s first round pick in order to make that happen — was part of that, as King told reporters Friday, after he broke the news that Brook Lopez is done for the season.

“I think we’re headed in the right direction, and if you look at our team this year, being as banged up (as it was), to beat Chicago in Chicago, Philly in Philly, New York in New York… we won some games in tough places,” King said. “And you see things getting in the right direction. Winning is important. And that’s what I told Deron: ‘We’re not rebuilding this year. We’re going to build this team to win next year.’”

— Reported by Colin Stephenson of the Newark Star-Ledger

Syracuse center Fab Melo will enter 2012 NBA Draft

Syracuse sophomore Fab Melo has announced his intention to sign with an agent and put his name into the 2012 NBA Draft.

Melo issued the following statement:

“After meeting with my mother, my family and Coach Boeheim, I have decided to enter my name in to the 2012 NBA Draft. Being able to play professional basketball has been my dream since I first starting playing this game and now I have the opportunity to accomplish that dream. Coach Boeheim, Coach Hopkins and the rest of the Syracuse staff have helped me develop as a player and as a man and I will always be appreciative for what they’ve done for me. I wish Syracuse University, the basketball program and the Syracuse fans nothing but the best.”

Gerald Wallace goes wild, Nets beat Warriors

New Jersey Nets forward Gerald Wallace went crazy Friday night, leading the New Jersey Nets to a 102-11 road win over the Golden State Warriors. Wallace shot 7-of-16 for 24 points, 18 rebounds, five assists and six steals in the win.

Here’s the Associated Press:

Wallace scored 10 points over the final 6 minutes and made a pair of key defensive stops as New Jersey rallied from 19 points down in the second half to beat the Golden State Warriors 102-100 on Friday night.

“The future looks good, if we had everybody healthy,” Wallace said after the Nets opened a four-game West Coast trip with their first win at Oracle Arena in more than six years. “We have an elite point guard, we have one of the up-and-coming centers … so our future looks great.”

Wallace might not have had the same feelings two weeks ago after arriving in a trade from Portland. New Jersey lost its first five games with Wallace to drop 19 games below .500.

The Nets have turned things around lately and have won three of their last four…

Kris Humphries added 20 points and nine rebounds while Deron Williams had nine points and a season-high 20 assists to help New Jersey to its third win in four games.

David Lee had 27 points and six rebounds for Golden State, which led 76-57 midway through the third quarter but couldn’t get much going offensively the rest of the way.