When Mikhail Prokhorov bought the Nets in 2010, he talked about winning a title. Six years, six coaches, no rings and one big mess later, he fired his coach, demoted his general manager and sat in Barclays Center on Monday admitting he needs a coach who can handle the pressure of New York and leader who can fix his broken franchise.
That’s a tall order. With Lionel Hollins fired and Billy King reassigned, assistant Tony Brown will serve as interim coach for the rest of the season and assistant GM Frank Zanin will field trade calls. But that’s just for the moment, with one name dominating the talk of the Nets’ future: John Calipari.
Yahoo Sports reported teams have been told it will take a 10-year, $120 million deal to lure Calipari — something the Kentucky coach naturally denied.
“I am not negotiating with ANYBODY. My total focus is on this team and winning the next game,’’ Calipari tweeted, adding he plans on being at Kentucky for a long time.
With Prokhorov worth an estimated $9 billion, it’s a price he could meet. But would he, and should he?
“Coach Cal is a great coach,’’ Prokhorov said. “But we won’t be discussing any names. I’m not in a hurry. We’ll put a lot of names in the list. As soon as we’re ready, as soon as deal is fixed, you will be the first to know.’’
Despite Prokhorov calling his club the NBA’s best team — on a day model-franchise San Antonio was in town — the Nets clearly need to be fixed, entering Monday’s game just 10-27.
With Prokhorov driving a damn-the-torpedoes style, they paid $123.43 million in luxury taxes and traded seven first-round picks and 11 more second-rounders. Two of those picks became Damian Lillard and Draymond Green, rising young stars for whom the Nets would gladly give up their entire roster.
“I take full responsibility for the state of the team and I think Billy King did his best,’’ said Prokhorov. “We need a fresh look. We should be able to take courage to turn down the opportunities, which maybe don’t fit to our strategy. Maybe this is the second lesson from the last six years.”
What was the first?
“We’re playing in the best market in the world and of course this is a market which makes a great pressure. That’s why we need a players and a coach who can resist this pressure and survive. We need not only players who want to play for us, but they can play for us,’’ said Prokhorov, adding in an interview with the YES Network, “Moscow and New York are like sister & brother: This is the same pressure. We need more tougher players.”
That could be viewed as a shot at not only at Deron Williams, but Hollins as well. It’s also one reason team CEO Brett Yormark is pushing for Calipari, hoping he’ll thrive in the spotlight, and bring some of his former UK players as free agents.
Yormark told WFAN that he hadn’t spoken to Calipari about coaching “yet,” and conceded it’ll take a lot to pry his friend out of Lexington.
A source said Calipari’s failed first stint with the Nets (72-112 from 1996-99) is his biggest regret, and feels it failed due to a lack of autonomy, which he’d want now. Prokhorov, however, wants to split the roles of coach and GM.
He said he’ll be in New York more so he can be more hands-on with these hires, while ESPN reported he’ll lean on right-hand man Dmitry Razumov and Irina Pavlova (who runs his U.S. investments), as well as Russian basketball legend Sergey Kushchenko.
He dismissed a report he was eyeing CSKA Moscow president Andrey Vatutin for the GM spot. And while Jeff Van Gundy, Tom Thibodeau and Mark Jackson will be linked to the coaching job, Van Gundy declined comment and the Jackson didn’t return messages.
“We need one, two players to make a championship contender,’’ Prokhorov told YES. “And I’ll do my best and all the organization will do our best to reach the goal this summer.’’