Nets Release New Uniforms!

Nets New Throwback Uniforms

This week, the Nets have released new throwback uniforms that they will be wearing for a few special games this season. These uniforms that the Nets wore in their ABA days of the 70’s when they won multiple ABA championships with Dr. J, Julius Erving. In my opinion, and I’m sure most people would agree with me, these uniforms are way cooler and better looking than the pretty terrible red messes the Nets are wearing now. Even the navy blue uniforms the Nets wore in the Kidd, Carter, Jefferson era were much better.

Kidd, Carter, Jefferson Era Uniforms

Unfortunately, the Nets will only be wearing their new uniforms for a few games starting in February. So for the rest of the season, our eyes will still be burning from looking at their current uniforms. One interesting thing about the new uniforms is that it says “New York” instead of “Nets”. This could mean one of two things. It could be a coincidence that they have chosen to wear a uniform that says “New York” a year before they move there, or this could be on purpose. I’m guessing that it is on purpose, and they do this to show Knicks fans and other New Yorkers that there is another team in the state and they don’t have to root for the terrible, overpriced Knicks anymore. Anyway, good job Nets for making a very nice looking uniform and I hope that our new uniforms and logo next season will be as nice.

Tweet of the Day: The Dallas Nets?

Yi is back!

The NBA Offseason Has Officially Begun!

With the Dallas Mavs defeating the Miami Heat, the NBA Finals have concluded in 6 games. 2010-2011 basketball season is over and now the NBA offseason is beginning in full force.

We’ll be covering the NBA offseason here at Kim Has Humps and hopefully make the offseason more entertaining than it usually is – which isn’t saying much.

Some notes:

• Today, Dwight Howard reiterated that he wants to be a free agent. This is bad news for Orlando, because once Howard is a free agent, he’s probably going to leave Orlando. The Magic were hoping that he’d sign a 2 year contract extension with them.

  Howard is probably the Nets’ #1 target during this offseason and possibly the next.

• Last night, Mark Cuban, Mavs Owner, gleefully declared that the Mavs won the Jason Kidd – Devin Harris trade with the NJ Nets. Cuban is a pretty unlikable guy but he’s done a lot to bring the Mavs success. Hopefully Proky can do the same thing once the Nets move to Brooklyn.

NBA Finals Preview

The NBA Finals between the Dallas Mavericks and the Miami Heat begin tonight at 9:00 PM on ABC (hopefully we will be done with the senior dinner by then). These two teams are just about complete opposites, and this will make for a very intriguing series. As we all know, the Heat went out and signed Chris Bosh, Dwyane Wade, and Lebron James in the offseason and became an instant power. They were favorites all year long and nobody is surprised to see them here. The Heat have been hated all season long and they know that the only way people will shut up about them is if they win a championship. The amount of pressure on them right now is enormous. The Mavericks, on the other hand, just seemed like an average Western Conference playoff team coming into this season, but they had a nice regular season and a great playoff run so far. Nobody believed in them when they had their second round series against the Lakers, but they didn’t care and swept them anyway. They have been playing with urgency throughout the playoffs because they know that they are aging and their window to win a championship is closing, and their hearts are set on a championship now.

Now I will talk about some of the individual players and matchups in the finals. First, we will look at Miami. Dwyane Wade is coming off a pretty bad playoff series for his standards. He was pretty much shut down offensively for much of the games and he seemed content that Lebron was scoring most of the points and making the big plays. I have no problem with this. The Miami Heat are very difficult to guard, and the Bulls decided to shut down Wade. This left tons of open space for Lebron to work with and he took advantage of it. If Dallas chooses to guard Lebron tighter in this series, we will most likely see a jump in Dwyane’s scoring numbers. In the previous series against the Bulls, Chris Bosh took advantage of his matchup with Carlos Boozer, a terrible defender. He will not have this luxury in this series, as Tyson Chandler will most likely be guarding him. Expect little from Bosh in this series. Now on to the bench and joke players for the Heat. First of all, let this be known: they have a few important guys coming in off the bench, but this series will ultimately be decided by Dwyane and Lebron. The bench will help out, but they will not effect the outcome of this series. The most important player for Miami’s bench is Mike Miller. He is a pretty good player and he needs to make his open shots in this series. Udonis Haslem is also an important role player. He needs to fight with Tyson Chandler down low and hopefully will be able to get Chandler in foul trouble early to clear out the paint for the Heat scorers. Other than those two players, the Heat bench is awful. I hope to see former Net Eddie House make an appearance in this series. Maybe if one of these games is a blowout. Also of note, Erick Dampier will be playing against his former team in this series. Maybe he will come into this with a vengeance. Probably not though. He’s fat.

Eddie House in his Nets Days

For the Mavericks, the most important player is clearly Dirk Nowitzki. He has had a huge playoffs so far and he hopes to continue it this series. He might be the least guardable man in basketball with his height and shooting ability, but I expect to see a good effort from Lebron. I think that Lebron can guard anyone in the world, from 6 foot point guards (Derrick Rose) to 7 foot power forwards (Dirk). Still, expect Dirk to average at least 25 points a game. Surprisingly, I think that the second most important player for the Mavericks is Tyson Chandler. He is the captain of this defense and he has been great all season for them. He is the first not terrible center they have had in the Dirk era, and if he stays out of foul trouble, expect him to make an impact in this series. The 3 point shooting in this series will come from the Jason’s, Terry and Kidd. Terry had that impressive 9-10 3 point shooting performance against the Lakers and when he gets hot, he gets hot. Kidd’s shot has gotten better over his career and he is still a great passer. He never won a championship on the Nets, but he made the finals twice. I will be rooting for the Mavericks in this series just because I want to see Jason finally get his ring. He deserves it. The Mavericks bench is mostly just really old guys and joke guys like Peja Stojakovic and DeShawn Stevenson (one of our fan favorites). However, they do have a chance to impact the series. When we saw Dallas play against the Nets this year (we never saw Miami, too expensive), Dirk hit a game winning shot with 5 seconds left and the Mavericks won. Because this game was so close, I am surprised to see them in the finals now, but they seem to be a very well put together team and they have great chemistry. Even though I think that Miami is more talented and a better team, I think that destiny and fate are on the side of the Mavericks. Even though I think the Heat will win game 1, I am picking Dallas to win the series in 6 games, and the Heat will have to wait another year to win a championship.

Jason Kidd in the NBA Finals as a Net

A Nets giveaway during the 2007 NBA playoffs. Pretty cool, don't you think?

Mets-Pirates Game 1 Recap

Memorial Day Baseball!

The Mets won their second game in a row tonight with a 7-3 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates. They outplayed the Pirates in all aspects of the game and had a fairly easy win, though there were some nervous moments. The scoring started in the game with a long 2-run homer to left by Chris Snyder, the Pirates’ catcher, of all people. However, the Mets came back with 2 runs in the bottom of the inning. It was one of the most disgusting innings of baseball I have seen all season, but more on that later. The Mets added a run in the 5th, but Pittsburgh countered with a run in the top of the 7th to tie the score. In the bottom of the 7th, Josh Thole had a clutch double, bringing in two runs and giving the Mets the lead for good. It was one of Josh’s first clutch moments of the year. He has been terrible in crunch time until tonight. The Mets hitting tonight was impressive. 5 players had multi-hit games, and the only players who did not record hits were Dillon Gee and Willie Harris, though Willie made up for it with his defense (more on that later). For the first time this year, I was actually a little bit impressed with the Mets. They actually played well and closed out a game for once. Even though they should have scored a few more runs with all the hits they got, they scored enough to win. Also to note is that of the Mets 15 hits, 13 of them were singles and the other two were doubles. Interestingly enough, they did this without Jose Reyes and Jason Bay in the lineup.

Carlos Beltran, who went 2-4

Now on to the pitching. Dillon Gee was pretty excellent tonight, giving up 3 runs (2 on a home run in the second inning), 5 hits, no walks, and 8 strikeouts. The strikeout/walk ratio there was key to his great performance, and 5 base runners in 7 innings is good as well. The Mets bullpen finished off the game with Izzy and K-Rod pitching scoreless innings. For the Pirates, Charlie Morton was good enough. He pitched 6 innings and gave up 3 runs (only 1 earned) and did not walk a batter, though he gave up 11 hits. The problem for the Pirates was the bullpen. It gave up 4 runs to the Mets in 3 innings and Daniel McCutchen got the loss.

K-Rod

It is time for the Shea Experience and the jokes from the game. I will start at the beginning.

• As we arrived at Shea, we noticed the Chevrolet shirt give-away located outside the stadium. We had arrived early to see batting practice because we were bored out of our minds at home. We filled out a form and got a free Mets shirt. I love ripping people off like that. I wonder how many people will actually buy a Chevrolet after visiting that booth and not just doing it for the shirt. Raphi decided to put his shirt in his Mets Tote Bag from Saturday. It was still covered in peanuts and it covered the shirt in peanut grossness. More on peanuts later. Raphi, I still have your shirt, by the way.
• Because we were so early, we decided to go to the Mets box office and ask about tickets for the Ecuador-Greece soccer match at Citi Field on June 7th. We ended up buying tickets and we will be in attendance. We are looking forward to it. Also, we will be sitting in section 401!!! If you do not know about this, I think that this will be all you need to learn about it.
• When we arrived to batting practice, the Pirates were practicing. The mets practiced before we arrived so we did not get the chance to observe them. The Pirates were extremely boring, so after watching a while in the first row, we went up to sit in the shade. The Pirates hit very few home runs during batting practice. No wonder they are so bad. See pictures below:

Pirates Batting Practice

Pirates Batting Practice

• Raphi got Shea Fries for dinner. As he went to the ketchup stand to put ketchup on his fries, he pushed on the ketchup knob too hard and squirted ketchup all over the Mets employee standing by the stand. Luckily, she did not get mad but she definitely could of. Raphi was embarrassed and I thought it was very funny.
• Today was Memorial Day. To open the game, planes flew over the stadium after the national anthem and they were extremely loud and annoying. See video below. Also, Memorial Day baseball is kind of a joke. People make too big a deal about it. People came here to see baseball (if you consider Mets-Pirates baseball) not honor soldiers. Just play ball!

• We tried to Gadzuric our peanuts in Raphi’s Tote Bag again tonight, but we were less successful because of the people in front of us. Still, here are the peanut pictures:

Peanuts in our Tote Bag with Peanut Bag and All Star Ballots

Peanuts in our Tote Bag with Peanut Bag and All Star Ballots

Peanuts in our Tote Bag with Peanut Bag and All Star Ballots

• Just a note from the game, the cleanup (4th place) hitters tonight were second baseman Neil Walker for the Pirates and Daniel Murphy for the Mets. All I can say about that is ew. No wonder these teams are so bad.
• We noticed while looking at the scoreboard tonight that Pittsburgh shortstop Ronny Cedeno may have braces. I checked on the internet for it and found nothing, but I have my suspicions. We’re on to you, Ronny.
• The bottom of the second inning tonight might be the worst inning of baseball I had ever seen. The badness started with runners on second and third and Jason Pridie at the plate. Pridie strikes out on a normal pitch, but the ball goes past the catcher. I have no idea why he didn’t catch it. Pridie was safe at first and a run scored. But that was not all. The next batter, Ruben Tejada swung and hit the ball about 5 feet. A run scored from third and Ruben was safe at first. Then, with Dillon Gee at the plate, there was a wild pitch and the runners went to second and third. Gee then missed a bunt and ended up striking out. It was truly a terrible inning.
• Do you know those annoying guys who walk down the aisles at sporting events trying to sell memorabilia? Well tonight, we witnessed a very honest vendor. He was selling foam fingers and baseball pennants on sticks. While he was walking by, he was saying, and I quote, “Get your overpriced items here!”. What a great and honest guy. People still ended up buying from him.
• In between innings the Mets have something called “Mets Phrase Game” which is a little like hangman. Tonight, the clue they gave was something like “a holiday celebrated in America for our soldiers”. Hmmm… I wonder what that can be on Memorial Day. The guy playing the game obviously won.
• The singers singing “God Bless America” in the 7th inning stretch were awful to say the least. See pictures below:

Memorial Day Baseball!

Awful 7th Inning Stretch Singers

• Despite going 0-5 from the plate, Willie Harris had a few great defensive plays. See his best play from ESPN’s Web Gems below. It was number 2 tonight.

• Both teams tonight wore Memorial Day hats. The Pirates’ hats were especially bad, as they were red. They were really disgusting. The Mets’ hats were better but not great. See pictures of this as well as other pictures of the game below.

Justin Turner

Carmelo the Ball Boy

Murph in Action, Dillon "Alonzo" Gee on the Mound

Lyle Overbay

Garrett Jones

Pirates Outfield

Murphy and Tejada

Pirates Garrett Jones

K-Rod and Willie Harris

Andrew McCutchen on First

Andrew McCutchen on First

Lyle Overbay

• Before the Pirates batted in the 9th inning, we stealthily sneaked our way from close to the right field foul pole to behind the Mets dugout. We did this so that we can get a better view and also see the Mets players exit after the game was over. When the players left, they were happy that they won. When this happens, once in a while a player throws something of his into the crowd. Tonight, Angel Pagan was happy because he had just made a great catch in the 9th inning that didn’t save the game, but it did preserve the win. I was in the second row of people behind the dugout so I did not think that I would have a chance at catching Angel’s hat as he was throwing it. I was wrong. I leaped into the air (yes, it was this dramatic) and got my fingers on it. I tugged it away from 5 other hands and brought it low where I ripped it away from one last person. It was mine. I took it away with authority just like Dan Gadzuric would. It was basically the same thing as GadZoom dunking over Kwame Brown, the other people in the stands being Kwame Brown. Yes, I am declaring myself Dan Gadzuric. This is among the coolest things that I have gotten at sporting events, along with Jason Kidd’s armband with a #5 on it and Cliff Robinson’s shoes. It was kind of sweaty and gross, but I washed it when I got home. It was a great moment for me and KHH fans everywhere. See pictures below:

Angel Pagan's Hat

Angel Pagan, #16

Our next KHH event will be either Wednesday, Thursday, or both when the Mets host the Pirates again. The Mets do not return home again after that until the day before I go to camp, so we will be off from Mets action for a while. However, we will be returning to the Citi on June 7th to see Ecuador and Greece in a soccer game and we might also see some Red Bulls action one of the next two weekends. Until next time, so long.

Mikki With Authority!

Mikki with his favorite animal

As many of you know, Mikki Moore is my favorite all-time Net. He was only with the team for one season, 2007, but he helped the team make the second round of the playoffs before losing to eventual Eastern Conference champ Cleveland. One reason why I liked him so much was because he always talked to the fans and gave autographs before the game. I got to know him a little bit (I think he recognized me after giving me an autograph in 10 different games). He also always was the Nets player on the big screen giving announcements to the fans. In the Nets program, he even wrote a player profile where he talked about himself. From what I remember, his favorite animal is snakes and he has about 10 at home. His favorite NBA city to visit is Charlotte “because we always win”. This is the kind of attitude that you love from your favorite player. He averaged 9.8 points and 5.1 rebounds in this magical season, most of his points coming off beautiful passes from Jason Kidd. He is an example of how important height is if you have a good point guard. He was not very talented, but Jason Kidd’s passes were so good that maybe even GadZoom could slam them down (with authority). Below you will find one of my favorite Mikki moments. He received a pass from Kidd and threw it down in the playoffs (with authority). This is pretty GadZoom if you ask me.