Nets Euroundup: Will the NBA ever have a team in London?

Rose peddles at my feet — pic.twitter.com/4KebuiAL5W

— tyshawn taylor (@tyshawntaylor) January 14, 2014

Tyshawn Taylor’s enjoying himself in England.

The Brooklyn Nets are overseas in London this week, playing one game at the 02 Arena against the Atlanta Hawks in eight days while simultaneously playing global ambassadors to the NBA in front of an international audience.

While that sometimes means Euro-stepping around fans, it also means some real meet-and-greets and discussions about the future of the NBA.

Some news and notes:

• The Nets took off on a Delta flight shortly after 7 P.M. EST January 12th, landing safely in London after 3 A.M. EST (8 AM London time) January 13th. Joe Johnson: “I’m on fumes.”
• The Nets met with soccer football futbol club Chelsea FC, exchanging custom jerseys and greetings. Kevin Garnett is apparently a huge fan.
• Yes, Mikhail Prokhorov will attend Thursday’s game.
• Beat writers reportedly discussed the idea of an NBA franchise in London with players, with mixed but mostly positive responses. Though I get that the players are out there promoting the NBA overseas, I don’t see how it’s possible to have even one team there: the travel and jet lag alone would be a nightmare.
  
  The only way it could possibly work would be to have an entire division overseas, with teams traveling there for month-long stretches and playing multiple times. Then you’ve got the issue of bringing the European teams back to the United States and doing the same thing. But the biggest problem of all: even with their global initiatives, the league, if anything, has talked about contraction, not expansion. Do you really see them adding a team — much less a division — that adds that much travel cost?
• How does it feel to be in London, Reggie Evans?
  

  Feel good to be in London.

  — ReggieEvans30 (@ReggieEvans30) January 14, 2014

  
  Got it. Thanks, Reggie!

• Non-London tidbit to close us out: great chat with Andrei Kirilenko over on SB Nation, including some interesting thoughts on retirement: “I’m still thinking like I’ll be finished soon. We’ll see. You only think like that, but then the next year you’re like, ehhh, OK, I have one more year in me.”