In the hours before tip-off, Joe Harris made laps around the court as if he were hosting a party.
Hugs were exchanged with just about everyone in sight for what might as well have been a family reunion.
For the first time since March 2015, when he was a rookie with the Cavaliers, Harris was a visiting player in Brooklyn.
“Coming in here this morning was definitely really weird,” Harris said before seven scoreless minutes as his Pistons lost to the Nets, 126-115, at Barclays Center on Saturday. “Coming back this evening and getting to see everybody, just chatting it up with so many different people — it’s awesome.
“There’s something to be said about the compounding effect of the relationships and being here for so long. You build up some pretty special relationships with people.”
The relationships — and Harris’ career — were built from the ground up.
Harris was nearly out of the league, traded by the Cavaliers and immediately waived by the Magic, when general manager Sean Marks plucked Harris off waivers in the summer of 2016, after 1 ¹/₂ nondescript seasons in which he averaged 2.5 points per game.
He reported to Brooklyn for the 2016-17 season — just as Spencer Dinwiddie and Jacque Vaughn (hired to be a top assistant coach under Kenny Atkinson) were brought in — and gradually developed into the most prolific 3-point shooter in team history.
“[Brooklyn] means everything,” Harris said. “This is literally where I developed into an NBA player — here. If it wasn’t for my stop in Brooklyn, I’m not sure I’d be in a similar spot. You like to think that you would, but there’s a lot of dots that gotta be connected.
“I was allowed to learn through a lot of mistakes in those early years. Myself, Spencer included and a lot of other guys, we really developed into NBA players while we were here.”
By 2017-18, Harris was typically a starter for a developing team that won just 28 games.
The next season, Harris’ game exploded — leading the league in 3-point percentage — for an upstart, likable Nets team that cracked into the playoffs as a six seed.
Harris’ 3-point shooting kept growing, and he found a role in a league that increasingly valued his greatest skill. Harris — whom Vaughn called “the epitome of a great teammate” — signed a four-year, $75 million pact in November 2020 that looked sensible at the time, before his body betrayed him.
Two ankle surgeries ruined his 2021-22 season, and he returned for the hopeful superteam last season not looking the same.
He was never gifted defensively, but he lumbered without healthy ankles and his shot wavered, shooting a relatively poor (for him) 42.6 percent from deep last season.
“Whether I was making or missing shots, turning the ball [over], whatever it was — I always came out here and I played hard, put my body on the line, and I’m saying that quite literally,” said Harris, who said his ankle is now OK.
The Nets traded Harris and the roughly $20 million he was due in his final season of his deal to Detroit with a pair of second-round picks in what amounted to a salary dump, which allowed the Nets to redirect that money to re-signing Cam Johnson.
Harris, the fourth-most prolific 3-point shooter by percentage in NBA history, finished his Nets tenure with the most makes from deep (984) in organization history.
The Nets welcomed back Harris with a tribute video between the first and second quarter that he had said would be “a little bit embarrassing,” not wanting the focus on the individual. He waved at the crowd, who gave him a loud ovation.
“Incredible human being,” Vaughn said of Harris, who has only played sparingly with the Pistons. “Ultimate teammate. He sacrificed his game, his body, everything that goes along with being a teammate.”
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