NBA Essentials ranks our six favorite stories of the day.

1. NorthJersey.com: The Nets are talking trade for Carmelo Anthony, the Nuggets are listening. [via SLAM]

2. Dime: "Hornets Shutting Up the Haters"

3. The Sporting Blog: Deron Williams has a Twitter feed. Sure he does.

4. Third Quarter Collapse: Chauncey Billups sat out Game 5, but somehow got an assist anyway.

5. Deseret News: Could Andrei Kirilenko get deported before Game 6?

6. Channing Frye's Blog: Advice on keeping the ladies happy.

Richard Jefferson was officially arrested and charged with assault on Wednesday for an incident that happened at a Minneapolis hotel several months ago.

It's a little odd that it took this long for the other shoe to drop, but it may have something to do with the fact that Lyle Fox, the alleged victim, initially requested the police not be involved -- according to the hotel incident report (PDF), Jefferson choked Fox during a brief physical altercation, but after Jefferson left, Fox asked a hotel employee not to contact police because "he was not 'OK' with the cops."

I'm not exactly sure what that means, but I wouldn't be surprised if he decided he's "OK" with lawsuits once he realized RJ banks over $12 million a year. We'll see.

Just in case there was any question as to how Avery Johnson felt about the February trade which sent Devin Harris and draft picks to New Jersey for Jason Kidd, here are some quotes from the Le Petit General's closing statements to the Dallas media.

[Harris] was going to be an 18-and-8 player. I invested a significant amount of time with him and, again, he was injured and a lot of things were happening around the NBA, and like I said, if we can just hold on a little while, we've got the best record against the West. ... The team was changed and we never really got back on track. [...]

[The trade] was something that was tried and it didn't take us anywhere that was close, we were struggling to make the playoffs, so it didn't nearly bring us the rewards that we wanted.

Now that Dallas is done, it's obvious the trade was a bust. A huge, magnificent bust. Harris for Kidd straight up would have been considered a bust, since, you know, Kidd makes $20 million next year while Harris is locked up until 2012 at a salary that never gets larger than $9.3 million. And also because Kidd is 35 year old and Harris is 25. And also because Harris is arguably a better player today -- a 17.5 PER, 15 points and 6 assists in 32 minutes on the season -- than Kidd, with a 16.7 PER, 11 points and 10 assists in 36 minutes.

Throw in those draft picks (#21 this year, and a 2010 first round selection) and DeSagana Diop? No offense to Pat Riley, but this was a far worse deal than Phoenix's trade for Shaq. The Suns ruined their season. The Mavericks might have ruined their season and their future.

In addition to calling nationally televised games alongside Mike Breen on ABC and ESPN, analyst Mark Jackson also works alongside Marv Albert covering the Nets for the YES Network.

At least, he used to work for YES: as those dedicated (and tortured) Nets fans who tuned into Wednesday's meaningless season finale heard first-hand, Jackson revealed that he wouldn't be returning next year. From Neil Best at Newsday (via Sports Media Watch):

During the telecast, Albert called Jackson's announcement, which he initially made in the third quarter, "startling." As the duo signed off, Jackson said, "Thank you, people, for letting me in your home."

Naturally, this fueled speculation that Jackson is headed to the Knicks. But he told YES executives after the game that he simply had tired of the time apart from his family, which is based in Los Angeles.

First of all, disregard his official explanation: yes, he may miss his family, but I have a hunch he won't have trouble convincing them to move out to the Big Apple if he gets his dream job. Jackson is from New York, born and raised in Brooklyn before playing college ball at St. John's and getting drafted by the Knicks. And oh yeah, he's pretty familiar with Donnie Walsh, too, playing five and a half years with the Pacers.

I'm not saying Walsh has already contacted Jackson for the deal, but it doesn't seem like much of a stretch to think that Jackson is making it very apparent that he's interested and available for the job. As a local guy who's maintained a media presence across the river in New Jersey, hiring Jackson wouldn't be a bad public relations move for a franchise struggling to connect with it's base, either.

Atlanta's opportunity tonight to basically clinch their first playoff berth in roughly 1,400 years came and went without much fanfare -- the Hawks, after all, have looked like a sure playoff team for weeks now. Indiana needed a win over Atlanta tonight to stay alive, and -- hey! -- they got it.

Mike Bibby has heard choirs of angels and flutists since arriving in February, but tonight was a big ole foghorn. Bibby went 0-for-8 with 2 assists in 26 minutes. Bibby's Indy counterpart, Flip Murray, had a bonkers evening with 20 points on 11 shots and 10 assists. (Their salaries are only about $12.7 million apart, though.)

Atlanta's still in strong position for the gift of a first-round execution by Boston playoffs -- the Hawks hold a two-game lead over Indy with four games to go. The Pacers need to win out and watch the Hawks lose to two of the Celtics, Magic, New York and Miami, or go 3-1 and pray the Knicks or Heat can stun Atlanta. (The Nets, 32-45 and idle tonight, are allegedly alive too.)

It's criminal this race is happening while the 46-31 Denver Nuggets and the 46-31 Golden State Warriors have do-or-die games tonight. Time to update the Geneva Conventions, or at least the league rules.

Don't look now (really! don't! that's how they snare you!), but the Pacers have won four straight, and ladies and germs: We have a hot race for the 8th seed in the East.

Atlanta scored a massive win over Orlando last night, thanks to tremendous output from Joe Johnson (34 points on 20 shots, 7 assists, 3 steals) and solid efforts all around. That put the Hawks at 30-39, which would be 12th place in the West... but is 8th in the East. Awesome!

But those Pacers are only 1-1/2 games back themselves, thanks to a road win at Chicago. The improbably decent pairing of Mike Dunleavy Jr. and Troy Murphy combined for 49 points on 60% shooting, and Larry Hughes shot 2-11. (Fun!)

The Nets are actually tied with Indiana for 9th place, after a loss at Philadelphia. But no one really cares about the Nets, because they have been almost as disappointing as the Bulls (if that's possible). Not to disparage Nets fans (it's not your fault), but seeing the Celtics visit Atlanta or Indianapolis in the first round would be vastly more entertaining than a few more games at the 'Zod. Boo Nets!

The 76ers, fresh off a win over the Spurs, are feeling pretty good about life. Their playoff positioning suddenly looks safe, with Philadelphia slotted in at the #7 spot with five whole games separating them from ninth-place Atlanta. (New Jersey's at #8, a half-game ahead of Atlanta.)

So the postseason seems likely. But can the Sixers do anything once they get there? No.

Right now, Detroit would be the opponent. The Pistons are among the league's elite; spunky as you like, Philly still can't expect to hang on more than a game with Detroit Basketball. The Sixers could jump to #6, where Washington currently sits. That opponent? Orlando isn't quite elite, but very strong. Philly wouldn't be favored in any home games in the series (barring a Dwight Howard injury).

Even if Philadelphia manages to climb to the #5 seed (faltering Toronto's got a two-game edge), LeBron James awaits. The sixth-seed, thus, is the best option... and the opponent there is 20 games over .500. Not looking beautiful, Philly. Still: The fight this team has turned out two straight springs should be commended. Talentwise, the team has no business beating out New Jersey, Atlanta, or Charlotte. But they will. Cheers to Maurice Cheeks.

It's no secret that the New Jersey Nets don't get nearly the attention that the New York Knicks get, even though they only play 7.4 miles apart from each other. With the state the Nets are in now, that's a good thing for New Jersey. But when you had a hall-of-fame caliber point guard taking your team to the Finals, it can be frustrating.

Jason Kidd drove home this fact after the Mavs took down the Knicks, discussing wistfully how things might have been different had he simply played for the team on the other side of the river.

"We were on the wrong side of the Hudson. We were on the right side. If we were on the left side, I think things would have been funer. There would've been a lot more attention."

"The things we accomplished in that short amount of time would have been documented at a higher level. And unfortunately it wasn't.

"Who knows would have happened? That would've been ... just seeing what Patrick [Ewing] and those guys, the level they were competing for a championship, just the electricity with what the Garden brings. ... Now you see a lot of visiting teams - like LeBron going for 50 - use that to their advantage."

Superstar players have always wanted to put on a show in the Garden, because no matter how bad the Knicks are at the time, MSG is considered by many to be the "basketball Mecca." So I'm not sure that the home team necessarily plays any harder there than any team does in their own building.

Kidd might have a point though as far as his accomplishments are concerned. He did, after all, lead the Nets to two straight NBA Finals and six straight playoff appearances. The way the Knicks glorify Patrick Ewing's less productive time in New York, you'd have to think that Kidd's accomplishments would have had him placed on an even higher pedestal.

I can get that Vince Carter maybe didn't know that Devin Harris was set to make his New Jersey debut last night, but he didn't even realize that Harris practiced on Wednesday? I mean, there are only 15 guys on a team, it shouldn't be too hard to keep track of whose in the room at any given time. (Unless I'm a little slow on this one; I think he's serious, but my colleague Will Brinson is convinced he's joking.)

What isn't a joke is that this Harris guy can play: he led the Nets with 21 points in 21 minutes off the bench, scoring on an efficient 7-13 from the field, 3-6 from beyond the arc and 4-5 at the stripe. Oh, and he also dished out five assists while helping the Nets to a 120-106 win over the Bucks.

It's not hard to get crazy and predict something like a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, where .500 will almost guarantee your team a trip to the postseason. Of course, if your team just spent the days weeks leading up to the trade deadline involved in some sort of NBA-wide soap opera that involved punting your "best" player for cap room and young guys, well, you would think you'd given up hope. Richard Jefferson has not.

The middle to bottom of the Eastern Conference is such a wreck the Nets can at least embrace the fact their mess doesn't smell as bad as some other teams' messes.

'You look at the teams in the six, seven, eight, nine and 10 spots, we're definitely one of the most talented teams in that group,' Jefferson said. 'Are we one of the top three teams? No. But we are a team that should be considered, with the group we have, one of the top eight.'

And Jefferson goes on to point out that no team behind them is "so loaded" that they should concede a walk down -- this is very true. But not a guarantee. And we want guarantees. They seemingly always backfire, they're obviously unnecessary and they fuel the media fire. So get to guaranteeing, RJ. The least you can do is guarantee Jersey fans that the Nets make the playoffs, if you're not willing to pony up and predict they finish higher than the Mavs.