NBA

Nets rookie gets early lessons from Stevenson

SALT LAKE CITY — DeShawn Stevenson is in his 12th season in the NBA. MarShon Brooks is a rookie. Yet the two players are virtually always on the first bus that brings the Nets to the arena on the road. At home, they often are first in, last out at practice.

It is just one of the ways Stevenson is mentoring Brooks as he navigates the NBA minefield for the first time.

“He’s helped me in every way,” said Brooks who after his third 20-point game of the season Friday had a nondescript 11-point effort last night in the Nets’ 107-94 loss to the Jazz in Deron Williams’ Utah homecoming. “DeShawn is in the little things. He’s been through the bumps and bruises so he’s just trying to help me. Basically, with defensive calls, that type of stuff. He’s a very good defensive player.

“Another thing he does,” Brooks added, “he makes sure I’m the last one to leave the gym and the first one there. DeShawn gets on that first bus every time. He gets on with the rookies on the first bus. That’s unique for a 12-year vet. So he took me under his wing and helped me with my jump shot, with everything.”

Brooks is appreciative about what the veteran Stevenson has done, so much so that he vows one day to do the same for a young ’un. And the strange part is no one really helped Stevenson in a similar fashion when he was drafted out of high school by Utah in 2000.

“I just try to be positive,” said Stevenson, whose defensive presence and 3-point range the Nets welcomed back Friday after a two-game absence because of a sore knee. “I made some good money in this league. When I was coming in, I didn’t really have a veteran guy come talk to me like I’m doing with MarShon. You always had a veteran guy who thinks you’re taking his spot. But I wanted that [guidance].”

Stevenson, whose knee is a “concern” to coach Avery Johnson on back-to-back sets (not Stevenson, though: “I’m a warrior. I’ll be fine.”) admits he learned a lot with the Jazz, who had some fairly notable folks on board.

“I got drafted there at the age of 18, played with Karl Malone, John Stockton. I spent a good time there and that’s what got me here, being under a coach like Jerry Sloan and having to grow up in that system,” Stevenson said.

His positive effect — beyond the 3-pointers he has hit (11-of-34, .324), beyond the defense that turned Toronto’s DeMar DeRozan into a stick figure — is welcomed and appreciated by Johnson, who is grateful Stevenson opted for a one-year deal with the Nets after a title run in Dallas.

“In June, he was drinking champagne and smoking cigars and having a great time at a parade later on. So I think for him, it’s been tough, when you’ve won a championship,” Johnson said. “But he’s been the best. He’s really handled it well and he’s been a positive influence on our other players.”

Stevenson has really taken to the role of veteran mentor.

“I won a championship. I look at people like MarShon. If they could just get a little sense of what a veteran has, it could go a long way,” Stevenson said. “I try to get him to come here early, get shots early, just be a professional. I think it’s been working out, he’s been playing his butt off.”

fred.kerber@nypost.com