Chris Quinn, in the swamp

[NJNJ]

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When people want to insult New Jersey, they call it a swamp. Of course that's unfair. Much of the state isn't swampy at all.

 

But ... the area around the Meadowlands, where the Nets play and practice ... that really is a swamp. Some of it's paved, some of it's office parks and some of it's cattails. This time of year it's all cold, gray and barren.

 

Dotted here and there are stadiums, mini-malls and hotels for pragmatic people with business nearby.

 

I swung by one of those hotels earlier this evening to pick up David Thorpe before a Nets game. Thorpe was in the lobby, on the phone. There was also some guy waiting for a ride who looked kind of familiar.

 

Chris Quinn. For the last nine days, he has been the Nets third-string point guard.

 

Since the trade from the Heat, this random Marriott has been home for Quinn and his wife. They're very excited to move into a furnished corporate apartment ("two bedrooms," he says, "nothing fancy") tomorrow. They'll at least be able to have a home-cooked meal once in a while.

 

As for their stuff -- it's mostly in Miami. Soon Quinn's wife will fly to Florida, where they rented, to coordinate having everything shipped to Ohio, where Quinn grew up.

 

In the Nets locker room an hour later Quinn had no complaints -- he loves his job and sounds sincere about being happy to be here, and blessed to get to play in the NBA.

 

But he was frank that this is not a glamorous phase of life. In Miami the weather and wins were nice and plentiful. In New Jersey ... "I heard that I was traded, and packed pretty much the biggest bag I had with any kind of winter clothes I could find," he says. "And on the road trip, I bought a coat, so at least I'd have a coat when I got up here."

 

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