Joe's Personal Media Collection
Press Clips - Joe Netsfan.com's internet scrapbook of media mentions.
Mean Street - From hunter to hunted. Fightin' words.
The
Morgue - NBA/Nets news chilled for saving.
Chuckleheads
- NBA quotes: the best medicine.
Sweet
Nothings - Declamations of Nets-love.
YES/Cablevision
Mess Contacts - Make yourself heard!
NBA
Local Papers + Team Pages- For every NBA team.
Nets + NBA
Bergen Record | Nets
Adamek and Wojnarowski.
CNNSI.com | NBA
| Nets
ESPN.com | NBA
| Nets
INJersey | Sports
Various NJ Papers under one banner. Bob Considine, Nets beat.
Local Papers, Team Pgs | NBA
NBA.com | NBA
| Nets
Newark Star-Ledger | Nets
Rotating cast of beat writers.
Newsday | Nets
New York Daily News | NBA
Youngmisuk.
New York Post | Nets
| Sports
Kerber. Vecsey (T, F + Sun) and Mushnick (M, F + Sun).
New York Times | NBA
Robbins, Wise, etc.
Pro Sports Daily | Nets
Links to NJ Nets stories.
The Sporting News | NBA
| Nets
Sportsline.com | NBA
| Nets
Sports Network | NBA
| Nets
USA Today | NBA
| Nets
USBasket.com | NBA
YES Network | Home
| Nets
Mags, Fan Sites, Etc.
CllutchCity.net
A Rockets site as big as Yao.
Dime Magazine
Basketball + Hip-hop style.
HoopsAvenue
NBA news, fantasy leagues +.
InsideHoops.com
News and rumors clearinghouse.
KingsSuperfans.com
Think we hate the Lakers?
New
Jersey Nets Photo Zone
Jim Poorten's site.
Nets Hoops
Forum, discussion group.
ProSportsDaily.com
Index of NBA news.
RaptorBlog.com
Raptors fan blog site
Slam Magazine | Slam
Links
Entertaining NBA news.
Press Clips
The Nets took Joe Netsfan.com along for their ride last season – we had never gotten so much mainstream press. And we've added to our mentions as the Nets worked their way back to the NBA Finals. Here's our internet scrapbook of clippings, with links when we've got them.
NBA/Nets News - June 4, 2003
The Quotable Joe Netsfan
Steve Politi (Newark Star-Ledger) quotes Joe Netsfan several times in a piece entitled, "Nets: From age of the awful to an era of excellence." Throughout, Politi even appropriates some of our "History" headings, such as, "New Owners, Same Result," and adapts our "In Rod We Trust" slogan. Here are some relevant sections:
• "After more than 25 years of exhausting every way possible to lose a basketball game, Nets fans in general – and myself in particular – find ourselves readjusting to a surreal world of consecutive Finals appearances," said Michael Kozlowski, a lifetime Nets fan who lives in Waldwick. "This is the equivalent of winning the lottery with the dollar that was left behind after you'd been pistol-whipped and had the rest of your money stolen."
• It takes a fan like Kozlowski, who grew up watching Nets games on a fuzzy black-and-white television when they played home games at the Rutgers Athletic Center, to truly understand the heartache. He and a friend, Chicago resident Shawn Bleschwender [Ed note: It's "Belschwender"], created the site JoeNetsFan.com to "celebrate the tragic/comic doings of a franchise that seemed to be part soap opera and part car wreck."
They titled the part of their site about the franchise's past blunders, "Nets History – Or, How I Learned to Deal with Ineptitude." Because that's what life as a Nets fan was all about.
• Derrick Coleman was the No. 1 overall pick in 1990. Kenny Anderson was the No. 2 in '91. Together, they guided the team to three playoff appearances – but never past the first round. And, neither player was happy in New Jersey.
It was Coleman, when asked about Anderson missing practice to go to a strip club, who uttered the famous phrase, "Whoop-de-damn-do." Coleman was traded to Philadelphia in November 1995. Anderson was traded two months later.
During a seven-season span (1994-95 to 2000-01), the Nets finished above .500 once. The lowlights: Stephon Marbury wrote "All Alone 33" on ankle tape, John Calipari was fired after a 3-17 start, Jayson Williams broke his leg, a string of three straight first-round picks became complete busts.
Or, as Kozlowski put it, "I have seen more last-minute losses, wasted draft picks and general ineptitude than any basketball fan should see in a lifetime."
December 11, 2002
Veal Zeal: What's the Deal?
Joe Netsfan himself is quoted in a Bob Considine (Asbury Park Press) piece on Brian Scalabrine's popularity with fans:
"He's every man. He's like the rest of us in the stands. I don't want to say we've got skills like him, because that's not true. But he looks like he should be in the stands heckling himself."
Nets: The Final Fast Break
The writers at the Newark Star-Ledger were very complimentary. They wrote this about us in a long piece wrapping up the Nets' season, on June 13, 2002:
"Throughout the playoffs, we have enjoyed the insightful commentary from the diehard Nets fans who contribute to the Web site, JoeNetsfan.com. The site crystalizes what it has been like to root for this franchise better than anything out there."
Read the full piece here, under the subheading "DOWN WITH THE CLOWN":
http://www.nj.com/nets/ledger/index.ssf?/
base/sports-0/1023959431259684.xml
Cheering the Nets, but Without Blushing
Richard Lezin Jones wrote about Nets fans in the June 8, 2002 edition of The New York Times, quoting Joe and Vincent Vincenzo, one of our reader/contributors.
"'Being a Nets fan, you're always waiting for the other shoe to drop,' said Mr. Vincenzo, 34, an accountant from New Hyde Park, on Long Island. 'There were days that it was tough to be a fan, but you sort of stick with it and hope good things happen, and this year they have.'"
"'We've been here all along, but we were just too ashamed to say anything about it,' said Mike Kozlowski, a director of the JoeNetsfan.com Web site. 'But we can come out of the closet now.'"
Read the full piece here:
http://www.nytimes.com/
2002/06/09/nyregion/ 09FANS.html
Nets Fan Site Pulls in Unexpected Readers
In the June 4, 2002 issue of USA Today Mike Hiestand wrote:
"The names Mike Kozlowski and Shawn Belschwender might not mean much to the general public.
But to sports fans dreaming of creating online shrines devoted to their favorite teams, the pair might be inspirational."
Read the full piece here:
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/comment/ hiestand/2002-06-04-hiestand.htm
Jersey Fans Are Bunch of Pikers
Filip Bondy missed our sense of humor in a May 14, 2002 article for the New York Daily News about Nets fandom:
"JoeNetsFan.com, run by a couple guys named Shawn Belschwender and Michael Kozlowski, is a Web site that encourages, sort of, self-conscious rooting. The site's motto is 'No stranger to frustration,' and there is a half-hearted attempt to sell some odd-looking booster stickers.
"'Our stickers are made of high-quality vinyl to stand up to highly caustic New Jersey schmutz,' the site boasts."
That's the extent of our mention, but you can read the full piece here:
http://www.nydailynews.com/
2002-05-14/Metro_Sports/Basketball/
a-150804.asp
Jersey Churl
TimeOut New York was on to us early, back in our first year of existence, when the Nets were atrocious. Here's the short piece about us by Brett Martin that ran in the February 22 - March 1, 2001 edition:
"There's something about the stink of failure that brings out the creativity in people. At least, that's what you gather by looking at JoeNetsfan.com. The site features the musings and analysis of two Nets superfans – Joe Netsfan (a.k.a. Mike Kozlowski) and his 'pathetic sidekick,' Champagne (Shawn Belschwender, who also does the site's illustrations). The two are local guys with a half-seasn ticket package, a flair for diatribe and a long history of heartbreak. You feel for them, but worry that if the Nets ever make good on the promise of their talent, the site would lose some spark, if not its raison d'etre. Belschwender himself admits, "We do a better job when the team is terrible."
Hopefully, we've proved that last point false.
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© 2002 Shawn Belschwender and Michael Kozlowski
