It's been a decade since that New Jersey Nets team went as far as any NBA Nets team has ever gone, so we decided to ask: where are they now?
Jason Collins
Jason Collins, happy to be here. (AP)
Collins is the Nets OS-FTCFS (Original Seven-Foot Twin Center From Stanford). New Jersey selected Collins with the 18th pick in the 2001 draft, the sixth center taken after Kwame Brown (1), Tyson Chandler (2), Pau Gasol (3), DaSagana Diop (8) and Steve Hunter (15) were off the board. The 2001 draft also produced 2002-03 Nets Richard Jefferson and Brian Scalabrine, as well as current Nets Joe Johnson and Gerald Wallace.
Jason spent his first 6 1/2 years in the league with the Nets (2001-2008), and has spent the past 5 1/2 years with five different teams -- Memphis, Minnesota, Atlanta, Boston and Washington. The Nets traded Collins to the Grizzlies in February of 2008 for future Shandong Lion (China) Stromile Swift. Collins served as trade flotsam in June of that year, in an eight-player deal that landed Kevin Love in Minnesota. After a year on the T-Wolves, Collins spent three years filling a Hawks roster spot, including a 2010-11 campaign where he shot 1.000% from three (1-1). In the 2012 offseason, Collins signed with the Celtics, only to be traded along with the Leandro Barbosa to the Washington Wizards in exchange for Jordan Crawford at the 2013 trade deadline.
Collins proves that no matter how slow or offensively inept you are, if you have defensive wherewithal and a seven-foot frame, you can hang around the NBA for a long time.
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