One day into Nets training camp, there is a palpable change from last year. From the 200 press members that showed up to media day to the fans staked outside HSS Training Center, stars Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving have brought a whole new vibe to Brooklyn.
“Well, people showed up to our press conference. First year it was like crickets,” coach Kenny Atkinson said. “I think it’s a presence. And even during camp, they were watching what we’re doing, then they’re talking to players on the side and talking about strategy. They’re hoop junkies. These guys they just want to talk basketball really.
“Then I noticed people outside our practice facility when you drive out. It’s like Real Madrid. I thought it was funny. There’s a different excitement with the fans. I didn’t say they camped out, but there was some kind of tent there. So I drove around the other way and I came the back way the guy had my picture up. It’s just funny.”
Durant remains out with a ruptured Achilles tendon, and Irving sat out the first day with a facial fracture sustained Tuesday from an inadvertent elbow.
“Precautionary, totally. More us just saying, we don’t want you to get another whack,” said Atkinson, who expects Irving to wear a mask for the third time in his career. “Yes, I do. I don’t know how long. I don’t know if it’s for a couple practices, but I do expect that.”
After the NBA ruled Friday that Spencer Dinwiddie’s plan to create a digital investment vehicle based on his deal violated the collective bargaining agreement and wouldn’t be allowed, the Nets guard said the league just didn’t understand his venture, so he’s going ahead anyway.
The NBA told the New York Times “no player shall assign or otherwise transfer to any third party his right to receive compensation from the team under his uniform player contract.”
But Dinwiddie said that was never his plan in the first place.
“I wasn’t doing it anyway,” Dinwiddie said. “You’ve got to think about it: If I spent just short of a year building it, you really think I didn’t read the CBA? You really think I didn’t have lawyers read the CBA? That would be outrageously stupid. If it’s a whole business and lawyers went through it, they probably saw that provision, right? Which means that we wouldn’t construct it in a way that would violate the CBA because who wants to lose their job? That would be pretty dumb on my part.
“So we constructed it in a way that doesn’t violate the CBA. They said they were going to make their statement, and I honestly just said, ‘That’s not what I’m doing.’ It’s very simple. Once the Nets pay me, that’s the end of it. If I wanted to shoot the money into deep space, technically, I could.”
Dinwiddie plans to have further conversations with the NBA, though presumably not Elon Musk for the space plans.