Nets-at-Mavs: Vince Salary Dumps And Jay-Z Lyrics

   I am ready to head downtown for Nets-at-Mavs, with a three-pronged plan: Chart the resuming of the regular season, chase more trade-deadline frenzy, and talk about it all late into the night as I co-host with RJ Choppy on the ESPN 103.3 radio postgame show. (Listen live!) I am less fascinated by writing about the Nets-Mavs/Kidd-Devin trade retrospectives (haven’t we kind of blanketed the issues over the last 12 months?), so I’m glad Jan Hubbard of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and David Moore of The Dallas Morning News are on the case.

   There is one story about the Kidd-Devin trade, though, that I hadn’t heard before. It includes Cuban and Thorn and Jay-Z and LeBron.

   I did make it to LeBron and Jay-Z's "Two Kings" party Saturday night, which was notable not only for the expected attendees such as Spike Lee, Rick Fox and Pau Gasol, but for the random factor of Richard Moll (Bull from "Night Court") and Nets general manager Rod Thorn.

   Then I realized that technically Jay-Z, as minority owner of the Nets, is Thorn's boss. So Thorn was doing what any good employee would do by putting in an appearance at the boss' event. Not only that, he's a repeat visitor. Mark Cuban, the type of front office executive you would expect to see at a LeBron/Jay-Z party, said Thorn attended the first one in New Orleans last year. In fact, Cuban said, that's where they finalized the Jason Kidd/Devin Harris trade.

   "It's true," Thorn confirmed the next day. "We did."

   I love that story. The only way it could be better is if after shaking hands on the deal, Jay-Z's "I Just Wanna Love U" came on and Thorn sang along: "I'm a hustler baby/And I want you to know/It ain't where I've been/It's where I'm about to go."

    I am not hip enough to have attended those parties. I am not even hip enough to translate what are apparently song lyrics that don’t have any apparent relevance to the anecdote.

    But I’ve got the punchline: One or more of the principals involved in the Kidd-Devin deal may have been misguided due to being under the influence of alcohol. Or under the infludence of Jay-Z lyrics.

   Here’s hoping when Nets officials visit with the Triangle of Trust tonight (maybe for everybody to take one last look at just how badly NJ wants to salary-dump Vince Carter?), the whole gang limits itself to Diet Cokes.

102pm feb 18 2009