(l-r : The Situation, The Unknown Comic, Guy Who Likes Being In The Newspaper.  Not shown : Henry Louis Gates)

While Monday’s 90-84 defeat of San Antonio assured the Nets they’d no longer challenge for the worst NBA mark of all time, dignity in the Meadowlands is sadly, short-lived. Following an embarrassing, widely-publicized confrontation with a paper bag-wearing fan, Nets exec Brett Yormark attempted to curry favor with a conciliatory luncheon/webcast earlier today, catered by a local McDonald’s. From the AP’s Tom Canavan :

œToday was another good example of us being able to tell our fans, hey, when you want a voice, you™ll get one with us, Yormark said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. œThat™s who we are, the type of franchise we are and we want to be. I think resorting to a brown bag doesn™t do anyone any good and they realize that, and they were very nice and had good things to say about the franchise.

The lunch at the team™s headquarters in East Rutherford was streamed over the Nets™ Web site although the broadcast shut down because so many people logged on, Yormark said.

œI think, in many respects, a lot of good things have come out of this, Yormark said. œWe were able to reinforce our message to season ticket holders. We don™t have any more brown bags in the building, not that we had a lot to begin with before that incident, our players seemed to rally around it and we are playing our best basketball of the season.

œI don™t know if it was a negative, Yormark added. œIt was an unfortunate incident. I try to make the most of any situation and I think I did.