Shams: Kyle Korver to join Nets staff as player development assistant coach

Let the copy machine jokes begin!

Shams Charania reports Thursday that Kyle Korver whose draft rights the Nets sold for $125,000 — then (in)famously used the proceeds to buy a brand new copier — will finally join the team as a coach.

Korver will work directly with players but more in a consulting role than as a full-time assistant, per a league source. The Nets currently have eight assistant coaches, a player development coordinator in Amare’ Stoudemire, and a newly hired coaching consultant Steve Clifford on the staff. The Nets hired two new full-time assistants — Brian Keefe and David Vanterpool — earlier in the off-season.

Korver, of course, is one of the NBA’s all-time best 3-point shooters. He finished his career shooting 42.9 percent from deep and 2,450 three’s. Korver ranks 10th all-time in shooting percentage and fourth in three’s made. He also holds the NBA record for highest 3-point shooting percent in a regular season (53.6 percent in 2009-10), and most seasons leading the league in 3-point percentage (four).

Over the course of a 17-year career, Korver played for the 76ers, Jazz, Bulls, Hawks, Cavaliers, before finishing up with the Bucks in 2019-20.

To Nets fans though, he will forever be known for what the Nets did on Draft Night 2003 ... then how they spent the money Philly sent them.

In the second round of the Draft, the Nets took Korver with the 51th pick, then sold his rights to the Sixers for a pittance, $125,000. Billy King, 76ers GM at the time, was still bragging about it as he walked out the door in East Rutherford.

Why’d the Nets do it? Then assistant GM Ed Stefanski said the Nets simply didn’t have the roster space. A title contender, the Nets had just lost in the NBA Finals to the Spurs.

Part of the money, Zach Lowe later reported, went to buy a copier machine (that, truth be told, faxed and collated too!) Following Lowe’s report, Bobby Marks, the Nets other assistant GM, revealed that the money was also used to repave the parking lot at the Nets practice facility in East Rutherford and pay the Summer League entry fee.

Korver, when speaking at his alma mater’s commencement ceremony in 2019, touched on the fax machine story to make a point to Creighton grads.

“The 51st pick, to the New Jersey Nets,” Korver began, recounting the day he was drafted. “I found out shortly afterwards that I had been traded to Philly. I’m not sure if traded is the right word.

“I was more or less sold for an undisclosed amount of money. I later found out (the Nets) used that money to pay for the entry fee for their summer league team, and with the leftover money, they bought a copy machine.”

“But it’s OK,” he continued. “Because a couple of years ago, that copy machine broke. And I’m still playing.”

• Kyle Korver to join Brooklyn Nets as a player development coach, per report - Jack Maloney - CBS Sports
• Report: Kyle Korver, Steve Clifford join Nets coaching staff - Ajayi Browne - USA Today
• The Nets now need Kyle Korver to be the copy machine they traded him for - Kristian Winfield - New York Daily News
• The NBA was very different when the New Jersey Nets supposedly traded Kyle Korver for a copier - Stefan Bondy - New York Daily News