NET NOTES
Nets center Nenad Krstic felt for friend and fellow Serb Darko Milicic. The No. 2 overall pick in 2003, Milicic was buried on Detroit’s bench – sniffing only garbage time, if that – and losing interest in basketball.
“He wants to play but it was like he didn’t play in 2 ½ years, so he don’t care any more. If he go to a game, it’s hard, very hard. You go to the game and you know you’re not going to play. It’s very hard mentally to keep an [edge],” Krstic said. “It’s very hard to have motivation. When you’re going into the game and you’re up or down 20 points, the game is finished. Or you go in like two or three minutes, you can’t do nothing.”
Krstic said he now senses a rejuvenation in Milicic, who was traded to Orlando and the potential for opportunity.
“He wants to show everybody he can play,” said Krstic, who saw Milicic at the Meadowlands last night. “He wants to show he deserved to be the second pick. I think he’s going to be fine.”
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The Nets may make a trade-deadline move after all. Marc Jackson likely will go to Charlotte in a move designed to clear salary, more than to import help. A league source said the Nets may get a minimum-salary player in return.