The Brooklyn Nets have officially been sent back to the stone age. By that I mean they don’t have picks, they don’t look like a tasty free agent destination, they’re surely going to be terrible for the next few years.
But they have a new head coach in kenny Atkinson, they have a new general manager in Sean Marks and they have a brand new training facility. So not everything is bad.
But just for old times sake, let’s look back at the previous GM, Billy King. The poster boy for the Nets demise. He didn’t have the greatest stint as a general manager, most people point the blame to him when you think of the frivolous moves the Nets made in recent years and rightly so, he got canned earlier this year.
For the first time since his firing, Billy King talks about the Nets to Jabari Young and Vincent Goodwill.
“I think as I said when I interviewed for the job, ‘we’re going to make decisions together, we’re in this together’ and I felt we did that. and i thought we didn’t have picks, but I thought we could go after free agents and we signed Thaddeus and Brook to deals,
“But I don’t begrudge ownership. It’s their team and they invest a lot of money. It’s their prerogative. it’s like when you’re GM and you make a decision to fire a coach. That’s a decision you’ve got to make.
“So like I said from the beginning, every franchise is led by ownership. and there have been some that have been very, very successful and some that haven’t but they all learn and grow. All these guys are super people because they’ve made a lot of money. — all of them, all 30 owners in this league, in all pro sports, they made a lot of money in another area to be able to invest it in this. And they take a lot of heat. As much as we do, they take a lot of heat. because in the end, they have final say.
“So I look at it like it’s an opportunity they gave me. and I thank them for it and I’m friends with them and is there bitter feelings?. yeah, but you know when you’re hired, you’re most likely going to get fired.”
Man he had a lot to get off his chest clearly! I know he took several breaths while protecting that monologue but I feel like he wrote all that down and said it in one breath like Ace Ventura.
I’m glad he kept it real saying that he holds a little bitterness, he tried so hard not to chew on the Nets ownership but just saying that he’s bitter about it clearly shows that he thinks the ownership did nothing to help him and left him flapping in the wind.
