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Nets Lack of Trades Had Nothing to Do With Money

By Net Income
Ed Mulholland-US PRESSWIRE

Throughout the week leading up to the trade deadline, sources inside the Nets quietly insisted that the team's ownership had given management the green light to make deals ... if they thought it would help the team. The issue was not money, but best use of funds.

Moreover, Mikhail Prokhorov's two top aides, Dmitry Razumov and Christophe Charlier, were in town for discussions, working with Billy King and Bobby Marks. They in turn were in touch with Prokhorov, who joined them for the weekend's games.

Brett Yormark emphasized that in an interview Friday with Boomer and Carton on WFAN. While he repeatedly noted he has no role in approving trades, the team's owner is committed ... although he noted, fans need to be patient.

Ownership is committed to winning a title and I think that's been certainly displayed in the commitment we made and I know Billy that's what he thinks every day he wants to win a championship. We all do. But I think there's steps to getting there and who knows what happens this year.

He doesn't need approval from me, for sure. Billy goes right to the ownership on those things. Ownership from Day One has been very supportive of me on the business side and Billy on the basketball side. So if Billy feels that he needs to do something to make this team better, he does it. No different from what I do on the business side.

And when Carton repeatedly suggested that if the Nets had secured Josh Smith, they would be in contender mode, Yormark declined to respond, then added, "The fact that you're even asking are we good enough to win a championship means, we've done our job," he said, drawing the last four words of his response.

In his interview with ESPN, King said that as Thursday wore on, he thought the Nets chances of making a trade dropped from 10 percent to five. He made no mention of any restrictions on the front office.

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