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SEAN MARKS NAMED NETS GM

By Net Income
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After 36 draining hours of offers and rumors and feigned ignorance, the Nets on Thursday named Sean Marks their new GM.

"After an exhaustive vetting process, we are delighted to have Sean as our General Manager," Mikhail Prokhorov said. "His experience on the court, in coaching and management gives him a 360 degree view of the job at hand. His background helping to build one of the greatest teams in the NBA gives him an unparalleled frame of reference. And he impressed us all with his vision, his values, his personality and his enthusiasm for the club. The vote to select him from an incredible list of talent was unanimous. We welcome Sean into our Nets family and look forward to his strong leadership and independent thinking as we build our own success story."

Adrian Wojnarowski reports the deal is for four years.

The Nets and Marks agreed to a four-year contract, league sources told The Vertical.

In discussions that extended to Wednesday night, the Nets significantly increased their contract offer to persuade Marks to accept the job, league sources said.

Marks, 40, had emerged as the Nets’ top choice through a two-month process.

Marks, an 11-year veteran of the NBA who has served as assistant GM, director of player personnel, assistant coach and D-League GM for the Spurs, expressed his gratitude.

"I am very excited to be named the General Manager of the Brooklyn Nets, and to become a member of the vibrant and dynamic organization that represents Brooklyn," Marks said. "I would like to thank Nets’ ownership for giving me this opportunity, and I look forward to the challenge of creating a unified culture and building a winning team."

With a Russian owner, a Russian chairman of the board and now a native of New Zealand as GM, the Nets are the NBA's most international franchise.

The announcement followed a bizarre day and a half of news, starting with an Adrian Wojnarowski story Tuesday night that the Nets had made Marks an offer, followed by rumors that he had turned it down or planned to turn it down, and then, a press scrum at the HSS Training Center opening in which Prokhorov feigned ignorance of any offer or, for that matter, Marks himself, joking "I don't know this name."  But in the end, the Nets got their first choice, a 40-year-old who the Spurs had trained and put on a management fast track.

Significantly, Prokhorov said the decision to hire Marks had been unanimous among his search committee, which included Dmitry Razumov, his No. 2 and chairman of the Nets board; Irina Pavlova, his New York rep and president of ONEXIM Sports and Entertainment; Brett Yormark, CEO of Brooklyn Sports and Entertainment, the Nets and Barclays Center; and Sergey Kushchenko, his long-time sports adviser as well as a member of the Nets board of directors and commissioner of the Russian basketball league.

Marks was a dark horse candidate. Many believed that Bryan Colangelo, former two-time Executive of the Year, was the likely choice, followed by Arturas Karnisovas, assistant GM of the Nuggets and Gersson Rosas, assistant GM of the Rockets.  But in a multi-hour interview a week and a half ago, Marks wowed the committee and quickly made it to the "short list."

Although Wednesday's events got all the headlines, first Marc Stein and Mike Mazzeo, then Woj reported that the Nets and Marks were negotiating all through the day and evening.  Prokhorov's less-than-artful denials masked a desire by the Nets to conclude a deal before the All-Star Break ended with the Nets-Knicks game Friday night.  One league source said he expects a press conference sometime Friday.

The Nets job became open in January when Prokhorov "reassigned" Billy King after five controversial years as general manager, topped off by this season's disastrous start.

Next up is the coaching search, which Marks will presumably lead.  Among the names mentioned: Tom Thibodeau, Jeff Van Gundy, David Blatt and Ettore Messina, the Spurs assistant coach who was head coach at CSKA Moscow when Prokhorov owned that team.

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