Kenny Anderson and Derrick Coleman were faces of the New Jersey Nets during the early 90s. Photo Credit: NBA.com

Kenny Anderson discusses the 90s Nets and Knicks rivalries with Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson while on Scoop B Radio. Press Play Below To Listen!

The 2017-18 season marks 50 years that the Knicks and Nets have been battling for bragging rights. The Knicks hold a slight advantage in head to head matchups with the Nets.

In 188 meeting meetings, the Knicks have won 95 times and the Nets have won 93 times. On Friday, the New York Knicks and Brooklyn Nets’ matchup resulted in a Knicks 107-86 win at Madison Square Garden and a 30 point, 9 rebound outing for Knicks forward Kristaps Porzingis.

The Knicks win, was the first of their young season. 

On February 28, 1993, a nationally televised NBA on NBC game at Brendan Byrne Arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey was memorable for all of the wrong reasons. Former New Jersey Nets point guard Kenny Anderson, broke a bone in his left hand during that regular season home game.

With 8:52 remaining in the third quarter, Anderson stole the ball from Knicks center Patrick Ewing, who was double teamed.

Moving the ball at breakneck speed and almost slipping out-of-bounds on a Nets 3-on-1 fastbreak, Knicks guard John Starks literally bodyslammed Anderson while he was in mid-air.

Anderson landed awkwardly on his back while trying to catch his fall with his hands. A hard play, Starks was assessed a flagrant foul and Anderson would be officially diagnosed with a left wrist fracture.The injury would cost him the remainder of that season, Anderson’s second year in the league.

You can watch the play below.

“Yeah we were rolling,” Anderson told me on Scoop B Radio. “That was my first year under Chuck Daly and he gave me the ball and let me rock. We were in second place.”

It all happened so fast, but Anderson remembers it all like it was yesterday. “I was averaging like 16 [points], 8 [rebounds] and 9 [assists]. We were just rolling man. But it was a bad moment with one of those crazy, 90’s fouls.”

Anderson says the injury and foul are now both an afterthought. “You forgive and you just move on,” he said.

But speaking with Anderson, the nostalgia of the 90s is still there. It’s like it was yesterday.“But when it came to the Knicks and the Nets, that competition just came out of all of us,” he said.

“Those were the Knicks teams with Starks, Oakley, Ewing and my man, Mase. But we were rolling, man and we were really going at each other.”

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The post Scoop B: Kenny Anderson Remembers Nets/Knicks 90s Rivalries, Colliding With John Starks   appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

NBA veteran Derrick Coleman stopped by Thursday’s Scoop B Radio.

Coleman, the first pick in the 1991 NBA Draft by the then-New Jersey Nets out of Syracuse University was 12 credits short from finishing his coursework and on the verge of signing a five-year $15 million contract, something unheard of for a rookie in the NBA at the time. Coming from a family with a large military background, he was the first in his family to attend a major university. To his mother, going to college was a major event and she was not trying to hear anything otherwise. In the words of Ricky Ricardo from I Love Lucy, Derrick had some ‘splaining to do.

“As parents you always want what’s best for your children as far as education,” Coleman told me by phone. “But my mind was made up.”

Check Out DC and Scoop B on Scoop B Radio

Although Coleman went to the league, he always promised his mother that he’d go back and finish school. Twenty five years after making that promise Coleman, completed those 12 credits and earned his sociology degree from Syracuse. A fourteen year NBA veteran, Coleman began taking online classes during his second stint as a member of the Philadelphia 76ers in the early 2000s.

”As a basketball player you have idle time on your hands,” he said. “It really wasn’t that hard for me though because I’ve always been an avid reader.”

Check Out Derrick Coleman Through The Years

Not everyone needs a college degree, but everyone needs an education and access to opportunity. When it comes to athletes, many have negative connotations about their academic abilities and accomplishments, especially in regards to athletes of color. Coleman, like many other former pro athletes (of color), have debunked those misconceptions and myths.

The post Scoop B Radio: NBA Legend Derrick Coleman Discusses Surprising His Mother With College Degree appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.