Is Kiki's Job at Risk?

Thorn should have never made the clown the head coach in the FIRST PLACE. Now the situation has come to a head. Great stuff.

Loyer should have been coaching this team from the start. We may not have won many games but at least the young players would have a coach on board who will actually develop them(i’d hope) and minutes would be decided by actual play/progress instead of half baked agendas or favoring one player over the other. Thorn needs to do this asap and start the 2nd half of the season with a fresh slate. Maybe the Nets would finish strong if someone who cares more about the players and the basketball side of everything is at the helm instead of this 4 eyed buffoon!!!!

“Harris issued a three-paragraph statement the night he resigned, but two paragraphs were removed by Vandeweghe and LeGarie, the report said. Nets’ sources confirmed that paragraphs were omitted, including one about Harris wanting to be head coach.”

From Al Iannazzone’s article.

This is a sham. Bring out the guillotine and the basket

yessss if kiki gets fired that would be awesome. loyer looks like a real coach, then barrise could come back to the bench. haha kiki ur DONE!

Good send him back to the Knicks.

Looks like Sean Carter may get his wish.

Hollah!

He should be fired for wanting Harris to be the coach.

Kiki had absolutely ruined this team. Hid coaching decisions are mind blowing. Anyone with a personal ajenda rather than a team ajenda should be gone. This guy is the Nets’ version of Isaiah Thomas.

Great, Kiki leaves and Yi stays.

Time to start the death pool.

…where do I apply? I have never coached and only played a bit at high school, but how hard can it be?

It’s power politics being played for high stakes. The chance to rebuild a team from the gorund up with lots of flexibility and the richest owner in sports is a great prize. Thorn wants it apparently, and probably never liked Kiki’s title of heir-apparent. But the decision to fire Kiki or Rod ultimately rests with the new owner. I wouldn’t be surprised if they are both fired before the year is out and replaced by Proky’s choice.

We could start something on an exchange like this one to predict whether Kiki lasts the week. http://www.intrade.com/ Don’t know if there is another more sports-specific site.

Please, oh PLEASE, fire this clown NOW!

Thorn needs to go too.

Proky cannot be happy with either Kiki or Thorn. However, if Proky was leaning towards cleaning house and starting anew, this would be the perfect premise.

We are a mess.

@JohnY
Exactly.

Time to clean house! Rod and Kiki should both be fired!!!

Everyone needs to go. this is gettin ridiculous.

Nets fans should start chanting “Fire Thorn!! Fire Kiki” everytime Nets have a home game.

Again Kiki is the virus to this Nets franchise. He’s lying to Thorn about the side deal he made with Harris to get him here, he lied to the world yesterday saying CD-R was bench because “maybe” the back spasms had something to do with it then CD-R explains how he feels the best he’s felt since the beginning of the season. Kiki is all full of bogus lies and needs to go John Loyer is capable of running Nets head coaching duties for the remainder of the season maybe even sign him a long term deal anything is a upgrade over Kiki at this point. This could even help out Yi’s reputation with the Fans by getting rid of Kiki.

If something doesn’t go down by the trade deadline (either a trade or coaching change) I will not be able to watch the remainder of the season. Games have been extremely painful to watch. Fellow loyal Nets fans, we are 4-47, 4 and freakin 47. I have watched every game this year, brought my family to a game in Nj (we live in Massachusetts) and I feel completely betrayed. I have been a high school coach for 12 years now and the only thing I would do before games while coaching this team is challenge their pride. I know the last few games have been closer but I don’t see the desperation in their effort.

Can’t stand Kiki. Besides his inept coaching, this is an indication of the kind of person he is. I couldn’t stand him watching him from afar in Denver. He seemed like your worst nightmare of a car dealer or insurance salesman. Sleezy. I am not surprised to find out that he and Thorn had disagreements last year. I suspect much of that is over the incredibly shrinking Yi. Despite what some think, I do not find him a good evaluator of talent. He is a head hunter, a sell off your assets guy. I hope he is gone this week. Thorn is better off without him. I think Thorn should wash his hands of this guy and with dignity face his fate: I wouldn’t mind 2 more years for Thorn, but Kiki. Goodbye. What a back stabber.

Right now, doing something with the player personnel is more important than dealing with “he said, he said”.

Unfortunately these events may derail any last minute deals before the Feb. 18 deadline.

Thorn has put himself in a position to be the only one who can complete any trades (with Ratner and Proky’s private approval).

Proky needs to go along with Thorn for the time being.

Time to clean house, I agree. Start anew.

Al Iannazzone says;
“People close to Thorn believe he wants his situation squared away before any other decisions are made, but some things that have happened this season don’t reflect well on him, either.”

While nobody is immune from responsibility for this mess, I wonder what things don’t reflect well for Thorn in his eyes are.

I was suspicious in the beginning as to why Harris would come for just $200,000.

Harris must have had a verbal understanding with Kiki. Kiki probably told Harris that he would get Rod to move him back upstairs and Del would take over. Kiki may have believed that was true and probably Thorn and Kiki had some verbal understanding on this. However, it would have been implied that Kiki/Del would have been successful first.

Harris is to blame if he was foolish enough not to talk directly to Thorn and get something in writing. I doubt that Kiki made a written agreement with Del.

Peter Vescey, who was a longtime Knicks fan, deserves some blame for stirring up this issue without knowing the full story. I haven’t respected Vescey for years. I wonder why he is no longer on NBATV?

Harris should feel bad about what he has done, because he should have talked to Kiki and Thorn directly and waited until after the Proky meeting and the Feb. 18 deadline before walking away.

As it stands now, Harris deserves blame for getting his “friend” and “student” Kiki fired or demoted (if that happens). He should have thought about the consequences before walking away.

Rod needs to do this with the quickness.

@jerry25
Uh, nothing Vecsey wrote has been denied by anyone but Kiki. Harris is on the record quite clearly confirming it all. He chose to talk with Vecsey. You don’t see Thorn denying the Vecsey story.

jerry25,

I think that Adrian whateverhisnameis from Yahoo also deserves criticism for implying that Harris left because of the Twitter Boys before he knew what the whole story was.

@ Jerry25

Vescey has reported inside news on the Nets for years. & He’s one of few writers who should be cool in every Net fans’ book, IMO.

My 2 cents:

I think this shows how much Kiki did not want to be the coach. It’s just not his thing & never has been, if he really wanted to coach he would’ve done it already at some point. It’s not like he’s Jeff Bower, Bower has been an assistant & asst. head coach before. That’s why New Orleans hasn’t lost a step. I don’t much about Loyer except he’s supposed to be well liked. But at least he’s a real coach, which is what this team needs.

THE MESS STARTS WITH THE RAT!

No one comes out of this alive. There is very little you can take out of this season, which suggests that nobody has actaully done a good job.

Adversity is the only test that counts and so far everyone has failed.

Sure we knew it was going to be tough and we were ‘rebuild’ but this is worste tahn anyone expected. Rather than rebuilding we are still tearing the team and the fan base apart.

The management of the situation has been a disaster. I have largely been a positive supporter of the club, but this who season has been a mess from the top down.

@JustinNJ

You’re absolutely right with that one.

Kiki is a scumbag. Rod has no choice but 2 fire him for the teams sake.

Hire Shawn Carter for Assistant Coach!

Hollah!!!

With this new scandal brewing, I know all of you are wondering, so . . .

the NBA record for most coaches in a season is four, “accomplished” twice: Indiana in 1988-89 and Cleveland in 1981-82.

This is yet another record the Nets can tie this season . . . or possibly even break! There’s plenty of time left.

Dumpy – So would Barrisse count toward that?

Rod showed extremely poor judgement in making Kiki the coach. If Kiki did make a side deal with Dull, it would at least have been in the interest of the team because he knew he was not an NBA coach. What Rod did was clearly not in the interest of the team. Trashing Kiki for not being able to coach is like yelling at penguins for not being able to fly.

BTW, Vescey is a Clippers fan.

@NI

But what Vecsey wrote is not the whole story and he wrote it like it was the final word. Vecsey dished Dave D., who received a different perspective.

Vecsey didn’t ask Harris to present the “agreement”, because it probably doesn’t exist.

Harris, by not waiting a couple of weeks, may have now damaged the Nets organization including his “friend” Kiki.

Harris should have talked with Thorn directly if he had a problem. Thorn though was at fault to not realize something was wrong and he should have gone to Harris.

Clearly Thorn has been trying to save his own job and was willing to throw Kiki under the bus.

We still don’t know if there ever has been any communication between Thorn and Proky (direct or indirect) on any of these matters, so the full story is yet to be written.

Just like with the Arenas gun story, Vescey likely got the shell of the story right, but mucked up the details and presents it as gospel. That guy and the NYPost are a perfect match.

With that said, this is all an adulterated mess and quite frankly, no one should be spared when Prokhorov takes over. I’m sure there were some qualities to the Titanic that made it a nice ship, but you never heard about anyone looking to salvage some parts to build a new ship.

Kiki needs to go, not only is he a terrible coach, but he has managed to disenchant and stund the growth of our young guys (CDR especially). That CDR had a DNPCD last night is evidance of this. I would still keep Thorn as ultimately this whole mess is the Rats fault.

I hope Kiki gets fired today and Loyer can at least get this team back to functional.

“Rod showed extremely poor judgement in making Kiki the coach.”

I suspect Rod made a very calculated decision in making Kiki the head coach with the motive of setting him up for the role of the scapegoat at the expense of the team.

I also suspect there probably was some kind of behind-the-door informal agreement between Rod, Kiki and Del on transitioning Del into the head coach role later in the season after team has had some success but that success never materialized. Otherwise, why would Kiki, who knew full well that he couldn’t coach a darn with a gun pointed to his head, leave the comfort of his GM’s office to step into a situation where he could end up being remebered as the guy who coached his team to the NBA’s all-time worst record?

Before every fan and ALL team members give up the last sliver of potential hope, FIRE KIKI.
I might finally go to a game this season just to start the chants…in the name of everything holy, in the name of Lil’ Laurnece Frank:
“FIRE KIKI…..FIRE KIKI…..FIRE KIKI…..FIRE KIKI!”
(told you guys long ago he was an evil (&*(@).

Why does Thorn keep getting a free pass from some here? He made Kiki our HC because he wanted to see him fail, and because he wanted his boy Frank out, and as Iannazzone points out, it’s obvious there’s been a power struggle between them. Thorn didn’t care about what was the best for those kids. He just wanted to see Kiki sink, and he did this even if it was something really detrimental to our kids’ development.

Thorn is the 1st one who has to go.

Thorn turned into a jerk overnight… all for the favor of the Oligarch. He set Kiki up to fall for the sole intent of getting him fired.

What’s the record for the number of head coaches fired in a single season in professional sports?

Quick Rod, fire Kiki now before he meets Prokhy. Kiki is like a wraith or a shape shifter. He will appear to Prokhy, not as a gangly, awkward, conniving, failed GM/Coach, but as a French Prostitute and he will seduce Prokhy into making KikI President/GM/HeadCoach and Kiki will convince him to allow Yi to become the starting Point Guard.
Quick Rod, fire him before its too late.

All together now:

FIRE KIKI!!!!!!!

Net Income, now you see what I’ve been sayin? He’s a rat lower than the Rat.

So, once more,

FIRE KIKI!! And Take Yi with you.

Hollah!!!

I don’t see it as Thorn set up Kiki to fail. Kiki wanted Frank fired. Thorn disagreed. Kiki kept pressing the issue, until the Nets started 0-16, and Thorn could no longer justify with a straight face why he was keeping Frank around. Remember, all of the Nets “fans” wanted Frank fired as well. If Thorn would have kept Frank on, it was going to make his decision-making look questionable. So he had to fire Frank. But he said, “look Kiki, if you’re so adamant that Frank be fired, you must feel you can do better. Plus there’s no money to hire somebody on the outside. So if I fire Frank, you’re going to coach this team and prove to me that you know how to coach this team better than Frank.” He basically forced Kiki to coach post-Frank.

But that doesn’t mean he set up Kiki to fail. Thorn agreed to take on Del Harris and his salary. This was to help Kiki become a better coach. If Thorn really wanted Kiki to fail, he wouldn’t have even done that. Besides, it sounds as if Kiki and Harris really expected the team’s on-court performance to improve. If they genuinely thought they were going to do a better job than Frank, I don’t see how Thorn “set Kiki up to fail.”

I think Thorn is tainted by association in this, and Prokhorov does indeed have cause to fire all of them. But I don’t think Thorn’s motivations for forcing Kiki to coach were untoward.

J-Kay:
Barrisse counts. Indiana had a guy go 0-2 for them, and Cleveland had a guy at 0-3—clearly, both in interim roles.

@Big Tom agreed 100%

Lets be real Net Fans. Kiki wanted L.Frank gone since last year why? Because Frank did not give “Yi” the mins kiki thought he deserved which is why we see Yi getting so many minutes now. Common Sense in Rod Thorns eyes he obviously disagreed with the firing of L.Frank but everybody wanted Frank gone even some of the players especially Devin Harris did not like L.Frank. So The boss Thorn had no choice but to fire him. With this team being “CHEAP” there not going to hire a new coach so what else would you do?. The person that complained the most about L.Frank which was Kiki you wanted him gone so much you coach the team and see if you could do better. As we all see he is a VIRUS to this team and franchise and needs to be gone. I can’t stand Kiki he is a LIAR and a STUBBORN individual who praises the ground Yi walks on I’m happy he was put in a situation to fail and i’ll be more then happy to come on NETSDAILY tomorrow and see a link to KIKI HAS BEEN FIRED!

It’s time for a change. If Thorn has to stay he should only be allowed to make trades. Drafting is not his forte, especially second or third rounders. I’ll hire Isiah Thomas to do that. As for coaching I still favor Lambeer although if the new owner has an European coach that won championship, he may want to bring that. If nobody hires Frank as head coach, rehire him as an assistant with top assistant salary. Basically, throw out all these players that can be disposed.

Let Ratner coach this putrid team he ordered up for us, the fans of this team. he can even wear one of those pathetic red road jerseys on the bench instead of one of his chintzy suits that look more fit for a shoe slaesman than the millionaire real estate con artist that he is.

What has Peter Vecsey written positive about the Nets lately and in particular since Prokhorov is taking over? I haven’t read anything here?

Vecsey admits at the beginning of his article that he has an agenda.

Why is Vecsey no longer employed by NBATV?
I agree this is typical of NY Post.

Bottom line is that the full story isn’t known and when it is, there may not be much of a story at all, other than friction between Thorn and Kiki because of the natural uncertainty of their jobs at this time.

Had Kiki continued to win some games at the beginning and Proky had his meeting with Thorn earlier, none of this would have developed and we wouldn’t be complaining.

This story shouldn’t be allowed to take one’s minds of the impending trade deadline and important meeting with Proky.

Fortunately, there probably won’t be any more games to lose before the Prokhorov mtg. Proky will have to address the coaching situation because Kiki will no longer have the respect of the players if his future is uncertain.

What’s so confusing is wasn’t his main agenda to give the young guys minutes? If so why isn’t that happening is there not a conspiracy going on right now? This franchise needs to be investigated by the FBI its something fishy going on and its hurting this team and the Fans. Who is Bruce Ratner why was he allowed to buy this team? So many questions so many unknown answers. Give the young guys mins but yet all that goes straight to Yi. While one of the focal points gets benched by a guy who complained most about giving young guys minutes. This entire team is a conspiracy due to “TWO” people Ratner and Kiki.

Also: Hire the best trainer. This team runs out of gas comes the fourth quarter. Hire a special trainer for Brook and hire a former center like Olajuwon to teach him the tricks of his trade. Or maybe Bill Walton.

I just love the fact that everything I say comes true about this team.

I been saying kiki had an agenda and was bias against cdr. Cdr’s name coming out in that article proves my point.

Thorn likes cdr but kiki doesn’t. No coach in his right mind would take away a promising kids minutes like that especially when he can score like cdr. Kiki doesn’t like his brashness and is the one that put the trade rumors out there.

Imagine if we would have lost the kid over nothing.

Kiki needs to be gone over the allstar break.

i was always adamant for thorn staying on board…… now i’m starting to think that Porky needs to clean house from top to bottom…… our franchise is a joke of an organization….

i hope Porky has people who read our comments and understands that the fans are embarrassed of their organization….

1st order of buisness….. Porky needs to become our owner… next order of buisness….. John Loyer needs to take over… can he really do worse?? Third order… Kiwi is fired and he takes that Chinese superstar with him…. for Kiwi to say he’s the next Dirk…is a insult to Dirk..

Net fans ….although we may disagree with Brooklyn or Newark… we all agree that the Net fans deserve much better than all this……but my policy is “patience is a virtue”

@superb

That’s really all it is he’s a stubborn individual who’s hurting this team. If CD-R don’t get minutes tonight then that should just put all Kiki’s supporters to rest.

@Blazin

It’s hard to be patient when you have a joke of a guy like this coaching your team.

@ Edd – Yes to Isiah Thomas AS LONG AS he is ONLY allowed to handle the draft, no to Rod Thorn – that should be Bryan Colangelo.

I anticipate that Kiki will be gone before the weekend. Why? Because no way Thorn wants that snake-oil salesman to be part of any meeting with Proky. Given the chance, Kiki would seduce poor ol Proky and get Thorn fired.

Game should be canceled for tonight, if you knew about the Blizzard that is coming your way with several foot snow drifts. Plows can’t keep up with snow and drifts.

This is not the time to blow up team, even if Thorn is a jerk.

I have nothing against Kiki, if only Thorn can pull off a good trade using Yi and returning someone like Camby, RAnderson, or BBass.

Keep CDR regardless, as he may be needed on draft day.

Even if Kiki returns, he should no longer be allowed to focus the offense around Yi.

People who want Thorn gone, probably don’t want Yi to be traded. Nets have been playing much better lately and now is not the time to Regress.

This is a first. Only Players ever get this tag, but it is now a coach.
Kiki is officially a cancer.

Bill Walton? Isiah Thomas? WTF, why not just hire Michael Brown? He’s available.

Harris left because he knew the Russian was going to shuffle the deck anyway. No way Vandeweghe survives. He’s even worse than Frank.

First move – get a coach. Second move – get a replacement for Yi, a go to guy. Don’t need to do anything with Simmons – no one wants him. Tell him to go home. Try to get whatever you can for Yi, Battie, Hassell, Boone, Quinn. Draft picks would be preferable. Season is a total loss anyway.

Isaiah Thomas? Are you nuts?

the coach isnt evrything. if this were frank you “fans” would be saying teh same thing. and that is exactly why ther ents need to bring in some real coach and let him coach and then see just hwo bad the nets are.

Dear Mikhail Prokhorov:

PLEASE get Mike Brown IN HERE to run THE WHOLE THING NOW!!!!!! I DON’T CARE HOW MUCH MONEY YOU HAVE TO PAY TO THE NBA AS A RESULT!!!!!!!! I AM ASHAMED AT THIS SITUATION!!!!!!!!!!!

ON BEHALF OF ALL NETS FANS

Frank is smiling these days. He is laughingly getting credit for turning around VC, as mentioned on Pardon The Interruption.

Obviously he is no longer being blamed for the mess in NJ.

Halwas: Look at Isiah’s draft record. Thorn has good record trading. Brook can learn a thing or two from centers that have done it and he needs agility and explosiveness.

This really makes Kiki look like a horse’s *. What kind of executive cuts a deal with an established guy, without the authority to do so. Kiki’s a gonner.

Re Kiki as coach – how many times have we heard other NBA coaches and players, like Lebron last night, saying they don’t understand the bad record the Nets have. They have a decent core of players and should be winning more games. Anybody think its because we do not have a REAL coach. These players deserve better than being the laughingstock of the NBA. Let Kiki go already!!

Don’t blame on Kiki. At least he gave us 4 wins. And the whole organization is a mess, not because of Kiki.

Thorn should be maturer, and if he is smart enough, he should have lend borrow some money from Prokhorov to hire a real coach.

what a horrible horrible season

Guys here what Yahoo reports now:

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/rumors/post/Raptors-GM-Colangelo-headed-to-New-Jersey-?urn=nba,218699

This all came as a result of so much pressure from media and fans to fire Frank. Thorn knew he wouldn’t have the money to hire a new coach so since there was such a huge amount of pressure to fire Frank, Kiki was his only alternative. And they tried to do it on the cheap and bring in Del Harris because he was a true coach and he could help Kiki. But since Harris didn’t help the Nets improve he saw the writing on the wall and wanted no part of the team unless he could be head coach. He felt the players didn’t respect him so he was even more of a lame duck than Kiki. Now this isn’t to say Frank shouldn’t have been fired after the season. But to do it mid-season without having a true coach to replace him would result in this debacle.

Why don’t those of you who claim that you are better coach than whoever got picked send in your resumes rather than just ramlbe about it here? I know many will never be satified by who is chosen, but blaming the coach while ignoring the players isn’t the way to go. They should take responsiblity as well. It seems as if changing coaches doesn’t seem to help with teams. Let’s not forget that the Knicks had five coaches in the last seven seasons after Jeff Van Gundy resigned and they still did bad.

The best coach in the NBA today is Rick Adelman no All-Stars and still has a playoff team. The Nets have one all-star and a franchise center but only four wins. You know something is wrong there.

I have yet to read a comment here explaining why I should pin the blame on Thorn rather than Kiki. I already explained why Thorn is not to blame. Now, if you want to totally clean house and press the reset button, then okay, but, please, Kiki is the one who seems to be the cancer imo. I give him credit for shipping out the burdensome contracts and having the guts to enact the tanking strategy as he did in Denver and Dallas, but he has had other things going on as well, the whole time.

jj,

The Rockets also have guys that play defense and can hit shots.

surely he wont last long nor he will coach next season

get avery johnson :D :D :D

Maybe we should have Sean Carter coach the Nets and then we can say he should be fired when the team is doing bad to get back at him for saying to the other coaches.

I find it reprehensible and totally unethical that Kiki may have sabotaged winnable games by refusing to play certain players, (notably CDR, but others as well).

Doesn’t that violate some NBA rule?