Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov all set to meet Phil Jackson – NBA Report
Ever since Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov has taken over the Nets, the franchise name and the playing field have not been the only things that have changed.
Prokhorov has changed the very culture at the franchise. For him, it’s all about winning and doing it consistently. That was what Avery Johnson did not achieve and the result was a surprising axe 24 days after the coach had won the NBA Eastern Conference Coach of the Month award.
Prokhorov bled money at the start of the season, and except for Dwight Howard, he landed pretty much the best available talent on the free market. The combination however has failed to click so far, and after the firing of Johnson, expectations have grown that proven coach will make his arrival to steady the ship.
On the top of the list of potential candidates is Phil Jackson, the head coach who has been the architect of two the biggest basketball legacies in the last two decades – the Chicago Bulls and the Los Angeles Laker. P-Jax is the man, Prokhorov wants to hire.
According to Sarah Kustok of YES and as reported by Howard Beck of the New York Times, the Russian billionaire will meet with the legendary NBA coach as soon as he returns from the new year’s festivities at home.
“We have heard pretty definitively that Phil Jackson is number 1 as he should be, as you’d expect he would be on the list. What we don’t really know is timing. Will they hire Phil Jackson sometime this season? Would that be the goal? Do they want PJ to finish out the season and then go through a coaching search? How quickly do they want to move?
I think they will try to talk to Phil Jackson as soon as they can sometime in the next few days when Mikhail Prokhorov comes back from his new years eve partying. I think they’ll look to have that conversation.”
Whether the 67 year old wants to join the franchise is an entirely different thing. Firstly, he is old now and there is a big question mark over the amount of time he can spend with the team, when it goes on the road. Secondly and most importantly, this Nets roster doesn’t possess the pedigree of a genuine contender, and if P-Jax has to take over, some head will have to roll.
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