Just keeps getting tougher and tougher for Nets

It was an hour before tip-off at Izod Center on a recent Tuesday night, and you still could get a parking space almost within spitting distance of the box-office entrance. The only signs of life outside the arena were two idle crossing guards and a man trying to unload tickets for $6.

Inside, as the Pistons and Nets warmed up, the atmosphere drifted between catatonic and drowsy. Dave Juliano and his son Evan, 14, settled into their regular seats, about 10 rows up in the corner by the Nets' bench.

As usual, they didn't recognize any of the fans around them. The regulars they used to know have stopped coming, only to be replaced by curious one-timers or, even worse, no one. At least a third of the seats in their section were empty.

"Nets fans are used to lean times, but this is a whole new low," said the elder Juliano, a fan for 30 years and a season-ticket holder for 12. "To be honest with you, it's hard to watch every night."

Hard to watch, and even harder to be a part of. The overwhelming feeling you get walking around Izod Center is that no one - not the players, not the coaches, not the reporters, not the fans - wants to be there. No one wants to be a part of this historic run; no one wants to say they were there as the Nets put together the worst record in NBA history.

The Nets enter tonight's home game against Memphis with a 5-50 record. That puts them on pace to finish the season at 7-75, meaning they would break the record of 9-73 set by the 1972-73 Philadelphia 76ers.

"Living this day to day is tough," said Nets coach Kiki Vandeweghe, who has been aging like a U.S. president since taking over for Lawrence (0-16) Frank.

It's not just the losing that has made things so tough; it's the fact that each day seems to bring yet another bizarre subplot. For example, by the middle of this seemingly benign game against the Pistons, word leaked out that assistant coach Del Harris planned to quit at the end of the game.

Harris' departure was just a small blip in a season that was launched with a thud after the team decided to trade Vince Carter in the offseason. The lowlights included an early-season injury to point guard Devin Harris, the team's best player; the firing of Frank, an 0-18 start and, most recently, a home game during a snowstorm that was attended by 1,016 fans.

Everyone from Rick Pitino to John Calipari to Mike Krzyzewski has been rumored to be in line to be the Nets' coach next season, and there is daily conjecture about the future of team president Rod Thorn under new owner Mikhail Prokhorov.

Now, the Nets are no strangers to turmoil and strangeness. This is the organization, after all, that once held a news conference to introduce Rollie Massimino as its new coach, only to have Massimino change his mind and not show up. This is an organization that rode the ups and downs of Micheal Ray Richardson, who was banned for life by commissioner David Stern for substance abuse only two years after leading the Nets to a first-round playoff victory over defending champion Philadelphia.

This year, however, the Nets have managed to combine big-time strangeness with big-time losing. Add to that the fact that the team is moving to Newark next season and perhaps to Brooklyn at some later date, and it's little wonder that they are averaging a league-low 13,045 fans.

If the atmosphere in the arena is dead, however, the atmosphere in the Nets' locker room is pretty much what you would expect - quiet, contemplative and weary. This is a team long past getting angry, a team whose players seem to be running out of ways to explain the unexplainable.

Veteran Keyon Dooling has learned to cope by making it a point not to talk about the situation with his friends and people outside the team.

"I don't allow friends to call me and ask what's going on in my work life," Dooling said. "When you have a bad day at the office, you don't want to bring it home. Unfortunately for us, we've had a lot of bad days at the office this year."

Devin Harris said he keeps his sanity by trying to set small, attainable goals. "It weighs on everyone, but you try to look for good things," Harris said. "For example, we were losing games by 22, 23 points and then we played some close games. So you look at that as a step forward."

Of course, it is possible that all this pain will help the Nets take a step forward next season. First of all, they will be in the best position of any team to get the No. 1 pick in the draft and select Kentucky freshman phenom John Wall. And second, they are positioned to be a major player in this summer's free-agent market - provided that this season's dysfunction doesn't scare away the top players.

For Nets fans, however, next season still is a long way away. What seems to bother Brittany Theobald of Lodi, N.J., the most is that only seven seasons ago, the Nets were playing in the NBA Finals for the second straight season. Theobald owns the jerseys of all the players she loved from that team - Jason Kidd, Richard Jefferson, Kenyon Martin.

"They traded every one," she said. "I'm not buying a Brook Lopez jersey, because I'm afraid they'll trade him, too.''

Juliano, who drives all the way from Pelham, N.Y., to attend at least 35 games a year, said he has a glimmer of hope that things will get better with a new owner taking over for Bruce Ratner. Juliano said he was nearly tossed out of the arena earlier in the year for bringing a banner that said, "End Ratner's Reign of Error," but now he believes there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Said Juliano: "I can't wait for the summer. The whole season has been a nightmare.''