The Nets reached an unexpected agreement with a free agent today, bringing aboard Donte Greene, who had been considering the Knicks, among other teams. It's the latest salvo in what's sure to be one of the league's most interesting rivalries as the Nets settle into Brooklyn for the upcoming season. As Luke Adams of Hoops Rumors noted, Atlantic Division teams have combined to spend much more than any other division this summer, so the competition figures to be intense from top to bottom. We've got the latest from around the Atlantic:
- Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald hears insurance issues were part of the reason Jeff Green's deal with the Celtics was held up for more than six weeks until it finally became official yesterday. The new CBA and side issues also played a part in the delay, agent David Falk told Bulpett.
- Gary Dzen of the Boston Globe has more from Green on what kept him from going elsewhere as an unrestricted free agent this summer. "They helped me along my route," Green said of the Celtics. "It was a no-brainer for me to come back and support the fellas and the whole organization as a whole. They were there for me through my stress of going through the surgery. I did whatever I could to pay them back by being there to support those guys, trying to be a helping hand around the team. They searched high and low for the best doctor, for the best clinic to go to handle the procedure. Everything that I needed. I didn't want the surgery. I didn't want to have this, to have to miss the season. They made it easier every step of the way."
- Celtics assistant GM Mike Zarren played a key role in the complicated details surrounding Green's contract, Falk told A. Sherrod Blakely of CSNNE.com, and Blakely has more on what the Sixers could gain, and the Celtics would miss, if Philadelphia hires Zarren, who's interviewing for the Sixers' GM job.
- A sports investment banker estimates the Nets are worth $575MM, 60% greater than a Forbes estimate last season and more than double the initial purchase price that owner Mikhail Prokhorov paid for the team in 2010, Josh Kosman of the New York Post reports. The team is projected to make between $10MM and $15MM this year, the franchise's first profit in a decade, Kosman adds.