ORLANDO, Fla. — After Anthony Morrow was acquired by the Nets before last season, the 3-point specialist walked into the team’s practice facility and saw retired Nets jerseys in the rafters. His eyes settled on the No. 3 of Drazen Petrovic.
“I instantly thought, ‘If I get chosen, I’m going to wear his jersey,’ ” Morrow said of the Three-Point Contest at All-Star Weekend. “It was something I always thought about in the back of my mind. I didn’t make it last year, and this year I did, so I said I would take advantage of it if I had the opportunity.”
Morrow will honor the late Nets shooting guard in the shootout tonight, where many — including himself — see him as the favorite.
“It’s an honor to be the favorite,” Morrow said, noting the three keys to the contest: “Not getting tired. Shooting my normal shot. And not rushing my shot.”
And when he releases every shot, he has one thought: “I’m making the shot. That’s it. I’m making every shot.”
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Deron Williams rankled about a recent ESPN report that had him headed to Dallas as a free agent.
“I’m just playing out the season,” he said. “[An ESPN reporter], though, knows where I’m going apparently. He’s 100 percent, I’m going to Dallas. So much that my mom called me to ask me if I was going to Dallas. I told her she shouldn’t believe [that reporter].”
Lakers star Kobe Bryant was excused from yesterday’s media session because of illness.
Players routinely are asked by foreign journalists to say hello to the people in their homeland. Perhaps the strangest one came from Nets point guard Deron Williams: “What’s up, Mongolia?”
Cavaliers rookie Kyrie Irving may have gotten the strangest question. “Would you like to play basketball in Iran?” he was asked.
Irving was stunned into silence, and then gave diplomatic answer about being in Cleveland.
The finalists for the Hall of Fame were announced, and there were a lot of familiar local names. The first-time finalists are five-time Final Four (and ex-Knicks coach) coach Rick Pitino, Knicks nemesis Reggie Miller, former Nets head coach Bill Fitch and two-time Olympic gold medalist Katrina McClain.
Those who are back on the ballot include Knicks great Bernard King , longtime NBA head coach/executive Don Nelson (yep, another ex-Knicks skipper), Maurice Cheeks, Dick Motta, Hank Nichols, Ralph Sampson, Jamaal Wilkes and the All-American Red Heads, regarded as the female Harlem Globetrotters.
Carmelo Anthony said it is “about time” King be inducted: “He is a Hall of Famer.”
There were five direct elections announced: Mel Daniels, voted by the American Basketball Association Committee; Don Barksdale from the Early African-American Pioneers Committee; Lidia Alexeeva from the International Committee; Chet Walker from the Veterans Committee; and Nike kingpin Phil Knight from the Contributors Committee.
Sam Smith, the legendary Chicago-based journalist who penned “The Jordan Rules,” and Bill Schonely, the original play-by-play announcer of the Trail Blazers, received the Curt Gowdy Media Awards.
Magic founder Pat Williams received the John W. Bunn Lifetime Achievement Award.