The Brooklyn Nets Are Practiced In The Art Of Firing

From the desk of:  THE HOOPS OF FLATBUSH

"Pocks on you and all your ancestors!" - Ed Norton

 

BROOKLYN NETS: My Spider-Sense Tells Me, Jason Kidd's F-Bomb Laced Tirade Directed At Lawrence Frank May Have Gone Over Very Well With His Two Bosses. 

Once is an occurrence.  Twice is a coincidence.  Three times is a trend.

And so it struck me today, they are three of a kind.

Lesson: When in a position of power, use it!

By the end of the previous decade, the New Jersey Nets were entering another down period, and clearly needed to rebuild.  Despite a new regime, it seemed logical to think that Rod Thorn, who had quite successfully constructed a Nets team which gained back to back NBA final appearances, was the natural choice to reconstruct the Nets again.

Upon seizing majority control of the club, one of Mikhail Prokhorov's initial moves was to unceremoniously dump former GM Rod Thorn.  Suffice to say, the parting of ways took many by surprise.

Mikhail Prokhorov then hired former Philadelphia 76ers GM, Billy King.

The new GM inherited then head coach Avery Johnson.

Just two months into their inaugural season in Brooklyn, and fresh off winning coach of the month honors for November, Avery Johnson, some might say, was unceremoniously fired by Billy King promptly after the team suffered a pair of embarrassing losses, first against the Celtics on Christmas Day, followed by another uninspired effort against Milwaukee, which dropped the Nets to .500, with a 14-14 record.

After P,J, Carlesimo finished out the season as interim head coach, Billy King, with Mikhail Prokhorov's approval, decided to hire Jason Kidd as the new head coach of the Nets.  Once again, many were surprised by the move, but this time for more obvious reasons.  The Nets also hired Lawrence Frank back into the organization, for the purposes of assisting Jason Kidd with his transition from player, to head coach.

While December is most commonly associated with the holidays, in Barclays Center, the month is fast becoming associated with pink slips.  This year's dismissal however, is uniquely different from your standard coach firing.  This year, Jason Kidd felt the need to stage a hostile take-over of his own job title, and fired Lawrence Frank as an assistant coach, and relegated him to pushing papers and filing reports.

Jason Kidd admitted a rift existed between the two since opening night.  Along the way, matters came to a head, and Jason Kidd felt compelled to act.  As head coach, I believe Jason Kidd made the right decision to consolidate his power, and reaffirm his position as THE Coach.

News broke out today, that Kidd's "exit interview" with Lawrence Frank was in fact an F-Bomb laden lashing into his friend and former coach.

In a move that surprises no one for a change, Lawrence Frank is now hiring a lawyer for the purposes of negotiating his exit, and a buy-out agreement on the remaining money owed him by contract.

It is becoming clearer to me, and striking me as no wonder why Mikhail Prokhorov and Billy King seemed so enamored with Jason Kidd, enough so, to hire him as their next head coach while lacking a stitch of coaching experience.  He's cut-throat - just like them.

Now, whether, Billy King, Jason Kidd, and the team can pull themselves together, and right this ship remains to be seen.

Be sure however, twenty games have gone by, and Mikhail Prokorov is watching.



Mike.BTB