Brooklyn Nets: The last reminders of a past life
Courtney Lee, New York Knicks
You probably haven’t heard much from Courtney Lee this season. He still plays for the Knicks, but he’s been sitting out because of an injury. However, according to the team, he is should be back on the floor some time soon.
Lee is another player that one would never think of when it came to playing in a New Jersey Nets uniform. In fact, in a Slam Magazine interview from 2016, it sounds like he’d like to forget his time with the New Jersey Nets too:
"“Tough. I went from sugar to s—, man. Cream of the crop to the bottom. Going to the NBA Finals to 12-70. Fans wasn’t showing up and when they did show up, they had paper bags on they face like, ‘We’re horrible.'”"
His anger is pretty justified to be quite honest.
As a rookie in 2008-09, Lee helped hold together a juggernaut of an Orlando Magic team. Dwight Howard led the league in rebounds and blocks and with sharpshooters like J.J. Redick and Rashard Lewis and playmakers like Hedo Turkoglu and Jameer Nelson, the Magic made it all the way to the NBA Finals.
The rookie split responsibility with Mickael Pietrus to shut down, or at the very least slow down, Kobe Bryant, who was on his way to his first title without Shaquille O’Neal. They did a good job, too.
But the Laker machine, retrofitted with Pau Gasol and a developing Andrew Bynum, proved too much for the young Magic team.
He was eventually dealt to the Nets in the 2010 offseason and joined a team desperate to make a splash. But it backfired. The team started 0-18 and multiple coaching swaps led to finishing the season at 12-70. The bottom of the barrel indeed.
He averaged 12.5 points that season, the highest of his career, but mostly in losing efforts. At the end of the 2011 season, he was dealt to the Rockets in a three-team deal that sent big man Troy Murphy to the Nets.
Since leaving the Nets, Lee has bounced around the league making stops in Houston, Boston, Memphis, Charlotte, and currently in New York. He has only gotten better as defender, though never garnering any award recognition.
He has also become a deadly knockdown shooter from outside of the arc.