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Kevin Garnett and Brett Yormark spoke at a NBA press conference in Beijing, their second joint appearance in two days, and the two echoed the dual themes they had pushed the night before at a dinner for Chinese executives: The Nets plan on winning a championship and want to be a global team. Yormark put the championship at the top of the list, saying it's not just a goal. Anything less is unacceptable.
"Our two biggest goals right now are to win championships and to be a global team. And in order to do that we needed to bring players like Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Jason Terry to Brooklyn," Yormark added. In a closing statement, the Nets CEO added, "Nothing but a championship is going to be accepted."
Garnett, who Thursday said the Nets are "championship caliber," told the press conference, which included 70 young fans, that he spoke to Doc Rivers and a number of other players that he was close to before making his decision including Danny Ainge, but stressed that he is excited about his opportunity with the Nets.
Rivers, talking to WEEI in Boston Thursday, spoke of the conversation he had with KG: "I don’t necessarily know if he wanted to go. But he went and now when you talk to him ... he’s excited. He’s excited about his new team and he really believes they have a chance of knocking Miami off in the East."
Perhaps noticing that the overwhelming majority of fans on hand were wearing green and not black-and-white, Yormark later tweeted that he had spoke to Adidas about stock KG and other Nets jerseys.
Met with addidas execs in beijing this morning. Big support of team jerseys in china planned for upcoming season.
— Brett Yormark (@brettyormark) September 6, 2013
When a fan asked when the NBA would be scheduling Nets games in Beijing, Garnett handed the mic to an NBA executive, who was non-committal.
- Kevin Garnett as Popular as Ever in China - Stuart Wiggin - China Radio International
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Rivers: Not surprised KG joined Nets - Mike Mazzeo - ESPN New York