With Fernandez’s New Contract Comes New Expectations One more way the NBA is in a league of its own: In other pro sports, heads roll following catastrophic campaigns.

New post on what comes next for Fernandez after #Nets extended his contract. Link:
open.substack.com/pub/stevelic...

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A Theoretical Nets Offseason Nets fans who patiently endured two seasons of trash basketball can finally crawl out of their torture chambers and imagine the more enjoyable forms of entertainment that might lay ahead.

The exercise #Nets fans have been waiting two seasons for: What a plausible offseason might look like. Link:
open.substack.com/pub/stevelic...

The Boom-And-Bust Yankees Like oil, the Yankees’ offense is a series of spurts and sputters.

Took a dive into the numbers behind the #Yankees' inconsistencies at the plate to start the season. Link:
open.substack.com/pub/stevelic...

Have The Devils Hit A Crossroad? For the first time since the Devils moved to New Jersey from Colorado in 1982, all three New York-area hockey teams will be spectators this postseason.

This #NJDevils team as constructed has had ample opportunities to grow together into sustainable winners. They failed. Link:
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Decision Looming On Devils D-Man In the second period of Tuesday night’s game against Philadelphia, the one that officially eliminated the Devils from the 2026 Stanley Cup playoffs, defenseman Simon Nemec made an ill-advised pinch at...

Ordinarily, a club wouldn’t be looking to move off a 22-year old defenseman coming off an 11-goal (including three in OT), 15-assist campaign no matter the growing pains. For the #NJDevils, it's complicated. Link:
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Good Riddance, 2025-26 Nets Season On May 10, we’ll find out if the #NetsTank was worth it.

My epitaph on the #2025-26 #Nets: Good riddance. Link:
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A Nets Too-Good-To-Fail Story The closing weeks of an NBA season are notorious for bringing out the strange as teams play out the string of the marathon slog, with minds focused on either the upcoming playoffs or getting out of Dodge.

The latest #Nets oddity from this #NBATankathon season--an unheralded player's too-good-to-fail story. Link:
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A Reminder To Nets Fans: Tanking Doesn’t Always Work The NBA Draft, even after the flattening of Lottery odds, is appropriately viewed as the soundest path to rebuild a flailing team.

A reminder to #Nets fans: The #NBA is rife with teams who have tanked their way to the undesirable middle--or worse. Link:
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Devils Finally Turn Page On Fitzgerald’s Tale Of Failure When the Devils fired Ray Shero as their General Manager back in January 2020, my take for WFAN was that he got it wrong in his attempt to rebuild the once-proud franchise the right way.

The #NJDevils' spirited closing kick was not enough to mask Fitzgerald's failure in reimagining the fast, fun team he inherited from his mentor. Link:
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As Brutal Season Winds Down, Nets Youth Still In Service To Opponents After spending a good deal of Friday rewatching old videos from my kids’ youth basketball days, I caught up with the Nets game against the Hawks later that night.

New post on lingering fundamental issue with #Nets youth. Link:
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Devils’ High-Octane Stretch Run Threatens To Obscure Need For Changes Well, if the Devils aren’t going to play out the string of a disappointing season by going into full-bore tank mode, at least they’re making the otherwise meaningless games in this final quarter enter...

The danger from making too much of the #NJDevils' high-octane run. Link:
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Mocking A Crucial Jets Draft We are three weeks away from the 2026 NFL Draft, the three-day event that Jets fans pray will bring the woebegone franchise the talent to build a young foundation.

A first stab at a 4-round #Jets Mock Draft. Link:
open.substack.com/pub/stevelic...

This post also includes a trivia question: Not counting those on 10-day contracts (or Haywood Highsmith, who never played due to an injury before getting waived), who is the only player who has not led the #Nets or tied for the team lead in scoring in a game this season?

Nets Fans’ Tanking Stress Will Only Get More Intense Down Stretch These upcoming last two weeks of this miserable Nets season will prove to be the most crucial of several inflection points in the franchise’s post All-Star break, accelerated tanking period.

The closing 2 weeks represents the final inflection point in the #Nets tanking mission. Link:
open.substack.com/pub/stevelic...

The Devils’ Demons Raise Canes Barring an impossibly successful lobbying effort to boot their nemesis out of their division, the Devils are going to take a hard look at themselves over the summer to find a real way to compete with ...

Why does Carolina have the #NJDevils' number? It's more than being "in their heads". Link:
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The Strange Calm After The Storm In its first NCAA Tournament Sweet Sixteen appearance since 1999, St.

Recapping St. John’s first trip to a Sweet 16 in more than a quarter of a century. Link:
stevelichtenstein.substack.com/p/the-strang...

Nets Nearly Steal One Brooklyn’s Offensive Drag

New post on the #Nets steal barrage last night and what's behind their starters' recent offensive drag. Link:
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The Devils’ Losing Battle With Variance Don’t Blame Format For Devils’ Missing Playoffs

New post on the #NJDevils' shooting variance this season and why it's foolish to blame the #NHL when the team is eliminated from the playoffs. Link:
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Nets Season Can’t End Soon Enough A Crazy Box Score Quirk

10 games left. Why bother watching? Also, a crazy consequence from all the expanded opportunities. Link: #Nets
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The NBA Playoffs’ Potential Effect On Non-Participating Nets As an older Nets fan, my animosity toward the team’s Manhattan neighbors never reached the most intense Rangers-like hate level.

How a trade intensified a rivalry, even when they don't play each other. Link: #Nets
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Hughes’ Brilliance Again Has Devils Fans Sighing, “What If?” A Hot Streak With Stiff Goaltending

Hughes is healthy & flying around the ice...and it's too late to matter for the #NJDevils. Also, get yourself a partner to love who is as forgiving as Keefe is with Markstrom. Link:
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The WBC Upset That Wasn’t A headline on ESPN.com proclaimed that Venezuela “stunned” Team USA in Tuesday night’s World Baseball Classic Championship Game in Miami.

New post on the disappointing end to the #WBC-- the upset that wasn't. Link:
open.substack.com/pub/stevelic...

Nets Rebuild 2.0’s Acceleration Will Be Complicated The Important Takeaway From Saraf’s Best Night

The #Nets could be ready to make a leap next season? Maybe not so fast. Also, Saraf's area of improvement that popped the most in Monday's defeat. Link:
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A Rotten Way To End A Classic Sunday’s WBC semifinal between Team USA and the Dominican Republic showcased the sport’s best.

The "classic" was taken out of the #wbcsemifinals by a self-inflicted wound. Link:
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A Nets Fan’s Viewer’s Guide To The NCAA Tournament On May 10, the Nets will learn the reward for their wretchedness this season.

With the #MarchMadness2026 bracket out, who & what should #Nets follow most intently? I compiled a list at:
open.substack.com/pub/stevelic...

Nets Join The Shameless Take A Beat Before Extrapolating Small Samples From Early Impressions

Whereas the #Nets had been losing games all season organically by virtue of its sheer talent disparity, they have recently opted to join the #NBA's shameless. Also, a familiar too-soon #Nets narrative taking shape. Link:
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After Another Embarrassment, Devils Have Reached Stage Where Winning Is Counterproductive In lieu of focusing undivided attention on another embarrassing Devils defeat on Thursday night, I spent the better part of the contest refreshing my understanding as to the rules for the NHL Lottery ...

The #NJDevils have massively underachieved relative to fans’ expectations this season. Window dressing wins down the stretch won’t soothe their disappointment. Link:
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Til Next Season, Egor; Nets Fans Barely Got to Know The Real You Nets fans have 17 more games to endure in this wasted season.

New post on #Nets Demin's rookie season and the still unknown future. Link:
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Only In New York: Meet The New Jets QB, Same As One Of Their Old QBs The Jets really are a backwards organization.

Meet the #Jets new QB, same as one of their old QBs. Link:
open.substack.com/pub/stevelic...