Nenad Krstic is now a member of the Oklahoma City Thunder.

The New Jersey Nets have declined to match Oklahoma City’s offer sheet to former first-round pick Nenad Krstic.

The decision Tuesday gives the Thunder another 7-footer as they continue to look for a reliable center.

Krstic was playing in Russia when the Thunder extended an offer sheet to him last week. The Nets had a week to match it but passed.

Krstic is just 25 and was an above average big man over the last two seasons in New Jersey before an injury knocked him out for most of the 2007-08 season. If he can get back into an NBA groove, he could give the Thunder another option to ease the burden on Kevin Durant.

At the end of the year, it’s always interesting to look back at all that has happened in the world of sports over the last 12 months. 2008 brought us a host of compelling sports stories, including the culmination of the Patriots’ (unsuccessful) quest for perfection, a Bejing Olympics that featured incredible accomplishments by the likes of Michael Phelps, Usain Bolt and the Redeem Team, and, of course, Brett Favre’s unretirement, which managed to hold the sports news cycle hostage for a solid month or more.

As is our tradition, we’ve once again broken our Year End Sports Review into three sections. The first is “What We Learned,� a list that’s packed with a number of impressive feats. And when there are feats, inevitably there are also failures.

Don’t miss the other two parts: “What We Already Knewâ€� and “What We Think Might Happen.â€�

The New England Patriots weren’t so perfect after all.

After rolling through the 2007 regular season unscathed, the Patriots entered the 2008 Super Bowl as overwhelming favorites to roll over the pesky, but seemingly inferior New York Giants. The Pats were just one win away from staking their claim as the best football team in NFL history. But thanks to a dominating Giants’ defensive line, an improbable catch by David Tyree, and a virtually mistake-free performance by Eli Manning, the unbeatable New England Patriots were beat. It’ll go down as one of the biggest upsets in Super Bowl history, and considering Tom Brady’s season-ending injury in 2008 cost the Pats a chance for redemption, it seems that many have forgotten how New England stood just one win away from perfection. – Anthony Stalter

Michael Phelps is part fish.

Eight gold medals in one Olympiad? No problem. Michael Phelps made the seemingly impossible look (relatively) easy en route to one of the most – if not the most – impressive Olympic performances ever. Phelps had to swim all four strokes, compete in both sprint and endurance races, and deal with the constant media attention and pressure that came along with his quest. Sure, NBC turned up the hype, but what Phelps accomplished is simply incredible. – John Paulsen

Usain Bolt is part cheetah.

First, Usain Bolt made Jamaica proud by setting a new world record (9.69) in the 100-meter sprint. Then, he broke the 12 year-old 200-meter world record with a time of 19.30 seconds. He showboated during the first race but cleaned up his act to win the second race in a professional manner. Some even say that Usain Bolt – not Michael Phelps – was the biggest story to come out of the Bejing Olympics. – JP

The Big 12 has the best quarterbacks in the nation.

The Big 12 housed some of the best quarterbacks in all of college football in 2008. Texas’s Colt McCoy, Oklahoma’s Sam Bradford, Missouri’s Chase Daniel and Texas Tech’s Graham Harrell were all considered Heisman candidates at least at one point during the season, while McCoy and Bradford are still in the running. Amazingly, Bradford and McCoy aren’t done; both will return in 2008. And although they don’t receive as much attention as the top signal callers in the conference, Kansas’s Todd Reesing and Baylor’s Robert Griffin certainly turned heads this year as well. In fact, the highly versatile Griffin is only a freshman and could make the Bears a very dangerous team for years to come. – AS

The Golden State Warriors are contemplating a dismissal of a key figure from their organization. With the Oklahoma City Thunder now part of the NBA, the Warriors’ mascot (nicknamed “Thunder”) might be a goner.

Warriors team president Robert Rowell commented on the mascot controversy:

“We’re clearly going to do something to accommodate Oklahoma City and not have our mascot named Thunder,� Rowell said. “For the sake of not making things confusing, we’re going to do something. We just have to figure out a good exit strategy.�

The team had been considering re-branding themselves to the public, and plans might move forward following this season. Rowell joked that the Warriors might open trade negotiations with Oklahoma City to acquire Thunder for a mascot to be named later. The team hopes to have some form of a mascot for this upcoming season.

The new NBA Oklahoma City franchise (formerly the Seattle Supersonics) has settled on the “Thunder” as its nickname.

As Oklahoma City’s NBA team prepared to reveal its name and logo, the NBA’s Web site showed “Thunder” as the name and the color scheme as blue, yellow and orange.

The franchise planned to formally reveal the team’s nickname, colors and logo at 5 p.m. CDT.

I’m not too keen on the Thunder, as I’m not a big fan of nicknames that don’t end in a “s.” It’s tough to say that Dwight Howard is the best Magic (?) ever or that Kevin Durant will go down in history as the best Thunder ever.

Over the last few weeks I heard several names bandied about; the Bison, the Barrons, the Tornadoes, the Marshalls and the Outlaws, just to name a few. I personally like the Outlaws, but given its tarnished reputation, the NBA is probably shying away from anything associated with criminal activity. Of that list, I think the Marshalls is the next best option.

It’s also a little strange that they settled on blue, yellow and orange colors. I thought they might do maroon and orange to tie in the Oklahoma Sooners and the Oklahoma State Cowboys.

You can see the logo at NBA.com and at the official team website, which, oddly enough, is still is tagged as “Seattle SuperSonics.”