Nets rookie Richard Jefferson won’t get tangled in a numbers game – unless you want to talk about victories. As far as personal statistical goals, Jefferson couldn’t care less. Just win. That’s all.
“If you win, all that will come,” said Jefferson, drafted 13th and acquired by the Nets as part of the swap for seventh pick Eddie Griffin. “At Arizona, I probably had the lowest points average for damn near anybody picked in the first round. I only averaged 11 points throughout my career. But we won. We won conference titles. We won pre-season tournaments. We went to the Final Four. Individual accolades, awards, that comes through winning, not through numbers.”
Jefferson’s right. Only five first rounders averaged less than his 11.3 points. So what? Arizona won and wore a winner’s rep throughout Jefferson’s stay. He wants to bring the same status to New Jersey. And he liberally uses a word that’s fairly foreign to the Net vocabulary: playoffs.
“That’s just what I expect,” claimed Jefferson, 6-7, whose defensive skills – and willingness to defend – have Net brass ecstatic. “I’ve won on every level. (Fellow rookie) Jason Collins has won on every level. Jason Kidd has won on every level. These are the things you come to expect. We expect to be in the playoffs, to be a contending team. It’s more a confidence, an attitude you have where you say, ‘Hey 30 wins is not good enough, 40 wins is not good enough.’ “
Remember, 40 wins in New Jersey merits parades. In their 25-year NBA history, the Nets have won 40 games eight times, just once in the past seven seasons. But Jefferson, who’ll swing between shooting guard and small forward, helped give a glimpse of what could be when he led the Nets to a 5-1 summer league record with team-best 12.3 scoring. Last year, the Nets were 1-5 in the summer.
There is undeniably a new attitude, only natural because there is, essentially, a new team.