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The Mess in Brooklyn ... Losses all around

By Net Income
Debby Wong-USA TODAY Sports

Probably the most concise line in Zach Lowe's comprehensive story about the situation in Brooklyn is the last one.

"There are lots of messes to clean up," Lowe writes. "No one is coming out of this looking good."

Lowe details the financial mess in particular, quoting a confidential NBA memo that states the Nets lost $144 million last season, at least according to the standard of accounting the NBA uses.  That's not a typo.  A Nets insider, approached by NetsDaily, said that the number is accurate.

The insider explained that the number is mainly the result of luxury tax payments, which will total $91.7 million this season, according to another insider.  There are also significant debt payments included in the ledger sheet, the first insider noted.  The Nets had the NBA's biggest debt load when Mikhail Prokhorov bought the team in 2010.  He agreed to eat up to 80 percent of the team's $200 million debt, choosing to service the debt rather than pay it off.

Still, said the first insider, "it's "a sh*tload of money."

More interesting is Lowe's accounting of the Jason Kidd mess, and how it began...

"Multiple sources insist the maneuvering started during the fraught months of December and January, and that Kidd did not open the game by asking for the top front-office job. Kidd during that period approached ownership with concerns about King’s job performance, sources say — King’s commitment, leadership, and vision for the future. Kidd suggested the organization might hire an outsider for a front-office job above King, sources say. Kidd even wondered if ownership had a basketball guy in Russia who might come to Brooklyn and take on a more activist role above King."

From there, it went downhill as the relationship between Kidd and King surfaced and then escalated.

Kidd did not pitch himself for the job — not at first, anyway. Those initial discussions went nowhere, though not everyone involved agrees on the timing and tenor of those talks. King is well liked in Brooklyn, and he has followed ownership edicts in dealing away just about every future asset possible to win immediately. The Bucks sought permission to talk to Kidd earlier this month, presumably about their head coaching job, and when the Nets were slow to respond, Kidd and his team began agitating for Kidd himself to assume the double perch, sources say.

Now, the Nets are beginning their free agency, starting with Paul Pierce.  ESPN reports (accurately) that the Nets would like to keep Pierce's contract at between $6 million and $8 million per and at two years ... or less.

What to expect?  A lot of changes.

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