Gerald Wallace will play in Brooklyn but won't live there

If you live east of the Hudson River, don't expect to call Gerald Wallace your new neighbor anytime soon.

"I'm staying in Jersey. I'm not going to New York," the Nets swingman said on a conference call Monday. "I'm not living in New York. I'm afraid of the city, so hopefully I can find me a driver that can get me back and forth to the games."

Wallace wasn't joking, but he shouldn't have any problem affording a chauffeur to shuttle him from New Jersey to Brooklyn after inking a four-year, $40-million deal to stay with the Nets. The Alabama native, obtained from Portland for a first-round pick in March, was one of the first players to agree to terms of a new deal when free agency began July 1.

After the season, Wallace made it clear that he planned to opt out of the final year of his deal because he wanted some long-term security. Both sides openly talked about wanting to get something done and soon found common ground.

Although Deron Williams hadn't completely made up his mind about whether he was going to re-sign, Wallace said his main reason for returning was to play with the All-Star point guard.

"I was comfortable," Wallace said. "I figured we'd get D-Will back. He really wanted to come back and I know we spoke about me signing back. Once I signed back, it went in our favor for getting him back. Then I think getting Joe Johnson in a trade, that kind of sold him on the idea that we were trying to go [all] in."

With Williams' re-signing, the addition of Johnson, the re-signing of Brook Lopez and the potential re-signing of power forward Kris Humphries, Wallace thinks the Nets have become one of a handful of contenders for the 2012-13 Eastern Conference crown.

"I feel like we have put ourselves pretty much up there in the top five," he said. "We haven't proven anything. The teams that are ahead of us, they have already proven it. They have already been there, were in the postseason.

"We just have to go out and prove ourselves. But confidence-wise, I feel we are just as good as any team in the league. We just have to go out and perform every night and make that happen."

Notes & quotes: The Nets officially signed veteran swingman Jerry Stackhouse to a one-year deal.