WASHINGTON — When Joe Johnson was officially introduced as a Net on Friday, he said they are already the top team in New York.
When Gerald Wallace was given an opportunity to voice his opinion on the subject yesterday during a conference call to announce his re-signing with the team, he was much more diplomatic.
“No comment,” he said.
Still, Wallace — the first of the many transactions the Nets completed over the last month when he agreed to a four-year, $40 million deal — is excited about the potential for their first season in Brooklyn.
“I feel like we’ve pretty much put ourselves up there in the top five,” Wallace said. “We haven’t proven anything … the teams that are ahead of us are teams that have already proven themselves, that have already been in the postseason.
“On paper … it doesn’t mean anything. We’ve just got to go out there and perform every night and make it happen.”
The 6-foot-7 small forward, who averaged 15.2 points and 6.8 rebounds in 16 games with the Nets after being acquired from the Blazers in a deadline day trade, said he and Deron Williams spoke about their impending decisions in the days leading up to the opening of free agency on July 1. Although he wasn’t sure what Williams was going to do, Wallace did expect the superstar point guard would wind up staying.
“He really wanted to come back,” Wallace said. “Once I’d signed back, it worked in our favor of getting him back and then I think with getting Joe Johnson in the trade it sold him on the idea that we were trying to go in. “So my thing was just try to get back and sign, and give him the confidence that I’d be there with him.”
Now that Williams, Johnson and Brook Lopez have all agreed to return alongside him, Wallace is looking forward to the experience of playing in Brooklyn — even if he’s not excited about the potential of having to get in and out of the city on a regular basis for home games.
“I’m staying in [New] Jersey. … I’m not living in New York … I’m afraid of the city,” he said with a laugh.
“I think the hardest part is gonna be getting back and forth to the games … that’s gonna be totally different for me. But other than that, I feel good.”
* A league source confirmed a report the Nets are likely to bring back Keith Bogans. After signing with the Nets on Feb. 1, the 32-year-old guard played five games before tearing his deltoid ligament and breaking a bone in his left ankle after a fall against the Pistons on Feb. 8. He was later released.
Bogans has been working out at the Nets facility since undergoing surgery in February.
The Nets also officially announced the signing of Jerry Stackhouse yesterday. The 37-year-old guard played for the Hawks last season, averaging 3.6 points in 30 games.