After spending the latter part of last season with the Knicks, veteran center DeAndre Jordan was expected to be a potentially key part of New York’s plan to pursue Kevin Durant in free agency. Instead, Jordan ended up joining the crosstown rival Nets, along with Durant and Kyrie Irving.
Jordan, 31, is joining his fourth team in two seasons. For him, the decision to go with the Nets over the Knicks had a lot to do with the team’s oft-mentioned culture and commitment to player development.
“Not to knock the culture the Knicks are creating, but we like what Kenny [Atkinson]’s doing and Sean [Marks] has been awesome and the organization, from top to bottom, has been great,” Jordan said to The Gothamist (via New York Post). “So you want to be a part of something like that, especially when you have a chance to play with other great players and build something.”
Check out more New York notes below:
- As for Durant, Jordan commented on his new Nets teammate in the same story. While it’s unlikely that Durant, coming off a torn Achilles, plays next season, Jordan is excited at what Brooklyn can accomplish when he does suit up. “We’ve got a lot of talent on this team,” Jordan said. “You know obviously Kevin had a tough injury, he’s going to be out for a while, but he’s progressing great, he’s recovering fast, we’ll be even better when we get him back and healthy.”
- With the Nets‘ free agency success has come an increased interest in the team, Kavitha Davidson of The Athletic writes. After luring Durant and Irving to Brooklyn, Nets’ CEO Brett Yormark said ticket demands, social media activity and much more has skyrocketed. “This is an outbound business, not an inbound business, so when a thousand calls are starting to come in, you get pretty excited. You realize momentum is shifting,” Yormark said.
- Knicks free agency signee Reggie Bullock may not return to the court until sometime in the new year, Marc Berman of the New York Post writes. A serious back injury forced the Knicks to rework their original deal with the 3-and-D specialist and his cervical disk herniation surgery could sideline him for upwards of six months, according to one leading orthopedic surgeon who spoke to Berman.
DJ is 3️⃣1️⃣ sir
Was literally reading this and thinking “Damn he aged quick”
Don’t these writers do any fact check? Every one in journalism wants to be first. Forget about quality and getting it right.
Nets will be good. Knicks will stink for a long time.
I’m tired of seeing articles about DJ and the over hyped Nets, first they ain’t making it out if the eastern conference much less to the NBA finals this upcoming season they’re not better than Philadelphia, Boston or Milwaukee and I wouldn’t count Detroit out either, and when Durant comes back for the following season only God knows how effective Durant will be. aid the Nets don’t make the Finals by Durant’s second season then we will be witnessing an even bigger monumental disaster than when that owner gambled with the Celtics players. So good luck when DJ and KD will be beyond 32 and Kyrie at 30 or older. Go chew on that Nets fans.
Damn straight man. The Nets went from a young team to a bunch of overpaid old farts awful quick. They’ll be taking turns on the disabled list for years, lol. The big three! Jordan’s a wanna be, Irving is a head case, and Durant is done. Bye bye Brooklyn!
OVERRATED!!