Nets’ Dorian Finney-Smith plays in front of his father for the first time
NEW YORK — The Brooklyn Nets have just four games left this season before all of the players will be going home for the summer. While Brooklyn has been eliminated from any kind of postseason contention, every player on the team has something to play for or someone to play for.
“I try not to make it more than what it is,” Nets forward Dorian Finney-Smith said to the media about playing in front of his father for the first time in his life prior to Saturday’s 113-103 win over the Detroit Pistons. In what initially to be a disappointing beginning to their last back-to-back of the season, the Nets came back from a 19-point deficit to beat a severely short-handed Pistons squad.
“It’s definitely important,” Finney-Smith continued. “I’m human so I can’t say it like I’m not going to think about it, but it’s gonna be fun.”
Finney-Smith’s father, Elbert, spent more than 28 years in Virginia’s Greensboro Correctional Center before being released thanks in large part because of the Dallas Mavericks, the franchise that Finney-Smith played the first 6.5 seasons of his career for. Finney-Smith played 24 minutes and put up two points and seven rebounds in one of Brooklyn’s biggest comebacks of the season.
"Nothing compares to this moment." – @doefinney_10 on his father Elbert watching him play for the first time. pic.twitter.com/F2uzGrObSf
— Brooklyn Nets (@BrooklynNets) April 7, 2024
