Everyone’s talking about how everyone’s supposed to care, but the Nets don’t really seem to.
“No,” Deron Williams said with a laugh. “We haven’t discussed it at all.”
He was asked, of course, about the Duke & Duchess of Cambridge, and if it’s been a big topic of discussion throughout the team that the two were attending the game at Barclays Center. It hadn’t been.
After a pause, he invoked his team’s former owners. “We have Jay-Z and Beyonce at a lot of games. That’s the royal couple of Brooklyn.”
There’s heightened security protocol at Barclays Center tonight, including a number of police officers standing courtside at their assumed seats during pre-game.
Williams was asked if he’d think twice about diving into their seats after a loose ball.
“I don’t really see who’s in the seats when I’m going after the ball, so I can’t really answer that question,” Williams said. “It depends on what’s going to happen after. Am I going to be arrested? Am I going to be banned from going to the UK?”
Williams was echoing an indifference vocalized by teammate Kevin Garnett the day before, as reported by the New York Post. “I’m sure I’m going to enjoy [it] but the focus here is Cleveland and we can’t forget that, I think everybody’s wives and girlfriends are a little more excited than we are.”
Nets coach Lionel Hollins had a similar thought:
Lionel Hollins on whether he's excited about Will and Kate being here: "I wouldn't be crazy if the Pope came over." He's not excited.
— Tom Lorenzo (@TomLorenzo) December 8, 2014
The lesson in all of this? The Nets care about basketball, not who’s watching. Tipoff at 7:30 P.M. EST.
