NFL
By: Greg Rector
Dear Mr. Tsai;
Are you Joe Tsai and Sean Marks the general manager of your franchise seriously considering hiring Ime Udoku to be the next head coach of the Brooklyn Nets? If so my first question is why? Your franchise has been a complete soap opera for the better part of two seasons. You would really consider hiring someone who just recently was found to be devoid of good moral character? Help me understand why he would even be under consideration for the head coaching position. The Boston Celtics suspended him with cause. I don’t believe he should be punished forever, or barred from coaching ever again. Isn’t it simply too soon after his issues in Boston have come to light? There are so many coaches available including the man you currently have as the interim coach Jaque Vaughn.
I agreed with you supporting Steve Nash this off-season the way you did when it came to light that your star player Kevin Durant wanted him fired. That’s not his call, it is yours. That’s where the issues started for your franchise. Mr. Tsai, I fully understand the desire to be competitive and pursue building a championship team. Here’s where you and I diverged in that goal. I know the established team that plays in Madison Square Garden gets the headlines and the attention. I fully support the aim of shifting that. There’s a way to do it right though and in that regard, I believe you have failed on that front. You had a young core of players that were scrappy, you had a solid basketball coach in Kenny Atkinson. There was an opportunity squandered to build from within. You and Sean Marks though decided on the quick fix of signing big names. As is so often the case patience was thrown out the window for the more expedient headline-grabbing free agents. I get it and it has worked to some degree with a big three. However, the players you brought in all came with character issues, all of them came to Brooklyn with question marks both on and off the court. Personalities like that are very hard to mesh into a cohesive group. Yes, they are talented, but where was the leadership? You see the big three in Miami had two leaders in James and Wade. The Warriors had Curry, Thompson, and Green, your guy Durant didn’t have to be a leader. Did you ever see real leadership from James Harden or Kyrie Irving?
Instead of bringing in leadership, you brought in marquee names. You went ahead then and named Nash your head coach. A Hall of Fame point guard, a championship pedigree, all of that is great. The problem? He had never been a head coach. He was the guy building Team Canada, not the guy coaching them. Many great players have not succeeded as coaches for a reason. They can’t translate their success as a player into coaching. You had a guy in Atkinson that we all watched take a group of youngsters and night after night they competed. Now they weren’t a championship roster, but they reflected their coach. They would fight and the coach made adjustments to keep them in a lot of games. They needed a floor leader and a rim protector, that’s what was missing. Instead, you shipped them out of town, fired the coach, and went for instant gratification. It didn’t work and that became obvious with the trade of James Harden and now the firing of Steve Nash.
Remember that word CHARACTER? One would hope that you are disappointed if not outright angry at the character of your point guard. His stance on the COVID-19 pandemic, the wearing of a mask, or getting a vaccine wasn’t enough for you? Guess not because now you have him giving his tacit approval for a film that is easily anti-Semitic to anyone who is rational. This is from a guy who not that many years ago was talking about the earth being flat. Now pro athletes don’t need to be Ph.D. candidates, but at least being able to distinguish between fact and fiction would be helpful. This comes up yet again with the player you acquired for James Harden. Ben Simmons showed clearly that when the chips are down and when his team needed him most that he didn’t have that in his character.
Mr. Tsai, you have a fanbase for your team. They pay good money to watch them play. Isn’t time to focus on doing things better? Isn’t time to hire a head coach that doesn’t come with dramatic baggage? Isn’t it time to have a roster that isn’t full of prima donnas? You have the opportunity to change the culture surrounding the Brooklyn Nets. I urge you to do so beginning with the next head coach of the Brooklyn Nets.
Signed,
An NBA fan.
