Clueless Nets want Phil Jackson to be Coach
The Nets, who are co-owned by Russian billionaire, Mikhail Prokhorov and Rapper, Jay-Z have proven two things in their tenure as owners of the Nets. 1) They love publicity. 2) They don't know a damn about how to run a professional sports franchise.
On Thursday the Nets kicked Avery Johnson to side weeks after he won Coach of the Month honors for the Nets sizzling 11-4 start. The Nets are 3-10 in the month of December putting them at 14-14. But, even Johnson admitted, and anyone with any knowledge of sports would admit, that the Nets had gone through a rough patch in the journey that is a 82-game season. With the talent they have, they would pull out of it, especially in the lackluster Eastern Conference.
But don't tell that to the Nets' ownership group, which had the biggest knee-jerk reaction since, well... the Lakers about a month ago when they TKO'd Mike Brown. They listened too closely to their superstar point guard, Deron Williams, a known coach killer and clubhouse cancer, who said he wasn't happy with the progression of Johnson's offense. The Nets failure to show up on Christmas proved to be the lump of coal in Prokhorov and Jay-Z's stocking, and final straw they needed to fire Johnson.
Now, the Nets are delusional enough to think that they can land a big time coach to coach this group of misfits for the rest of this season. And the biggest fish out there of course is the one and only Phil Jackson. Jackson and his 11 championships almost made a third comeback to the Lakers a month ago, before their front office decided to go with Mike D'Antoni, and the latest reports are that he is "intrigued" by the Brooklyn situation.
But lets be honest, every time there is a coaching change in the NBA, Jackson's name comes up. The team could be the worst franchise in the league, and the name Phil Jackons rolls off the tougne of the braintrust that runs each respective team. So should we be really surprised that the Nets want Jackson? Who wouldn't want a guy who won 11 NBA titles?
Jackson must be amused to have his name float around for every single opening that pops up. Maybe he gets royalties every time ESPN mentions his name whenever a coach gets fired? His name has floated with the Nets and even the Knicks in years past, and he never took a job at either place.Sure Deron Williams is a great point guard, but the rest of team is chuck full of guys who are average at best. Jackson is a coach who prefers to coach a team loaded with talent; why do you think he went back to the Lakers twice? If the roster isn't good enough to win the NBA title, Jackson wants no part of the franchise.
Last time I checked Brook Lopez isn't Shaquille O'Neal, and Joe Johnson is not Michael Jordan. It's not that New York is too big for Jackson, he won in L.A. and Chicago; the Nets are just not good enough for him.
If the Nets can't get Jackson, there are other top candidates Nets ownership is in love with; namely Stan Van Gundy and Jeff Van Gundy. Stan has already stated that he wants nothing to do with the Nets, and who can blame him? Last year Van Gundy was ousted in Orlando because of a rift between him and star player Dwight Howard. Williams has already kicked out two coaches on two different teams in his career. Why would Van Gundy want any part of that? As for Jeff, he has a nice cushy job as the lead NBA analyst at ESPN -- why would he give that up to deal with the pressure of working for incompetents like Prokhorov and Jay-Z?
What Prokhorov and Jay-Z do not understand about the sports business is that people talk. Avery Johnson is a popular coach in the league's coaching ranks. He learned under Greg Popavich, the legendary coach of the San Antonio Spurs, and was a very good point guard as a player. He will get another opportunity.
The Nets owners look like impatient shrills, who put Johnson is a position to fail the past two years, giving him a team that couldn't even compete at the NCAA level let alone the NBA. Then this year, after the club moved across the river, a rough patch proved too much for them to bear. I guess, they aren't selling enough tickets in Brooklyn? Kinda hard to do considering New York IS a Knicks town!
If the Nets owners think that they can convince someone the ilk of Phil Jackson to come work for their team after the buffoonery they pulled this week, they can forget it. Nobody with any real record of accomplishment is going to want to be associated with this franchise.
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