Normal supervisor Sean Marks is weighing a call that may dramatically affect the way forward for the Brooklyn Nets, a reality that ought to compel each Nets fan to run a 4.3 forty for the exits. Marks is about to rent yet one more coach, and the main candidate is a person serving a yearlong suspension imposed by the very workforce that swept the Nets out of final yr’s playoffs.
You'll be able to’t make it up, and also you by no means need to make it up when it entails the Nets. On a day after they lastly acquired one thing proper with the announcement that the workforce and Kyrie Irving will every donate $500,000 to causes opposing hate and intolerance, and with Irving’s admission that he erred in posting a hyperlink to an anti-Semitic movie, the Nets nonetheless dribbled themselves right into a harmful nook.
Within the wake of Steve Nash’s firing, they're reportedly ready to rent former Nash assistant and suspended Celtics head coach Ime Udoka. You might be conscious that Udoka was benched by the Celtics for all the 2022-23 season for participating in an improper relationship with a feminine subordinate and, in line with ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, for utilizing “crude language” with that subordinate earlier than the beginning of the connection.
The Nets have gambled earlier than with lots of people, beginning with Kevin Durant’s chosen sidekick, Irving, who wasn’t completely satisfied enjoying with one of many two biggest NBA gamers of all time (LeBron James), or enjoying for one of many two biggest NBA franchises of all time (the Celtics). They gambled on a coach with no expertise, Nash, and on James Harden and Ben Simmons, two stars who, together with Irving, reconfigured the definition of “excessive upkeep.” The Nets misplaced all of these gambles.
Likelihood is they'd lose this one, too. They're making an attempt to scrub up their very own mess by borrowing from another person’s mess, by no means a good suggestion.
“It’s a shotgun marriage,” stated former Nets govt and present ESPN analyst Bobby Marks, no relation to Sean. “I don’t perceive. Are Boston’s ethics and requirements of office conduct larger than Brooklyn’s?”
The reply is painfully apparent. Sean Marks and proprietor Joe Tsai are apparently able to log off on the hiring of a coach whose in-house conduct was reckless sufficient to earn a harder punishment than Latrell Sprewell in the end acquired (68 video games) for choking P.J. Carlesimo in 1997.
Do you assume the Celtics actually needed to banish a rookie coach who had simply led them to The Finals? So sure, that’s what they considered Udoka’s actions.
It’s laborious to consider NBA commissioner Adam Silver would enable anybody underneath a season-long suspension to take a backdoor reduce to a recent begin with any workforce, by no means thoughts a division rival, mere weeks into the penalty. However that’s the best way that is apparently taking place.
Wednesday night time, the Nets despatched out an announcement disclosing their million-dollar partnership with Irving — and their dedication to work with the Anti-Defamation League — to fight the form of hate that Irving himself had endorsed. The purpose guard lastly stated he's “conscious of the adverse affect of my publish in the direction of the Jewish neighborhood” and maintained that he doesn’t consider “all the things stated within the documentary was true or displays my morals and principals.”
So be it. However as a corporation lengthy guided by a wayward ethical compass, the Nets ought to now be involved in regards to the message that Udoka’s hiring would ship to their right-minded workers and supporters, and particularly to girls.
It appears the Nets are solely involved about making an attempt to avoid wasting a superstar-centric idea that's already damaged past restore.
“The Durant-Irving experiment is over,” Bobby Marks stated. “I'd simply wipe the slate clear and begin over.”
However the Nets are too determined to do something that smart. With just about no probability of giving Irving one other huge contract throughout subsequent summer season’s free company, the Nets wish to heave up one ultimate Hail Mary cross. Sean Marks is aware of he'll get fired earlier than Tsai lets him begin a rebuild, so what the hell, why not take a loopy shot at Udoka and hope to get actually fortunate?
And from a purely basketball standpoint, Udoka is a significant improve on Nash. A Corridor-of-Fame level guard, Nash might by no means earn Irving’s respect. One league supply witnessed Nash stomping his ft and taking pictures an indignant have a look at Irving throughout final week’s loss to Dallas for breaking a known as play. The hearth is finest described as a lot too little, a lot too late.
Udoka confirmed no concern in teaching the Celtics, publicly questioning their psychological toughness earlier than they responded to him in a giant means. His Nets would play protection and get bodily like Nash’s Nets by no means did.
On the identical time, Udoka’s potential to guide has been severely compromised. What occurs when the brand new coach tries to rebuke a participant, and that participant decides he shouldn’t need to take heed to somebody who acquired himself suspended for a full yr?
In the long run, if he hires Udoka, Sean Marks will seemingly say that he is aware of the total character of the person from their time collectively in San Antonio and Brooklyn, and that Udoka’s errors in Boston have been completely vetted.
However it’s by no means been clever to take the Nets at their phrase. They take loads of gambles, they usually have a fantastic expertise for shedding them.
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