Tag: Joe Tsai

Report: Nets were almost bought by Celtics’ co-owner Stephen Pagliuca

Brian Lewis and Josh Kosman of the New York Post reported that the Brooklyn Nets were almost owned by Boston Celtics owner Stephen Pagliuca.

The Brooklyn Nets were once the talk of the NBA as they were one of the main title contenders after fielding a franchise led by Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, and James Harden. At the center of that era was current owner Joe Tsai, someone who became the majority owner of the team in 2021, but almost didn’t get to that point.

In a recent article by Brian Lewis and Josh Kosman of the New York Post, Boston Celtics co-owner Stephen Pagliuca also became co-owner of the Nets along with Tsai. As Lewis and Kosman put it, one of the other angles in this reporting is what could have been if the Nets had a different ownership structure after Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov sold the team.

“I was honored to be contacted by the Nets in 2017 to look at the club,” Pagliuca said. “But, (I) decided after a review that my heart was with the Celtics and subsequently invested more capital in the Celtics franchise and also in the Italian Serie A soccer team Atalanta.”

One of the facts that makes Pagliuca’s potential ownership of the Nets interesting is that he was born and raised in the tri-state area. Pagliuca has been co-owner of the Celtics since 2002 and while there was a time that he could have had an ownership stake in his hometown team, so to speak, it seems that he doesn’t regret maintaining his ownership in the Celtics and in the Atalanta soccer team.

From the outside looking in, no one can blame Pagliuca for his decision to keep his ownership stake in the Celtics as they went on to win their 17th championship in 2008 and are on the brink of winning their 18th championship on Monday as they take on the Dallas Mavericks in Game 5 of the NBA Finals.

It’s unclear if anything with the Nets would have changed given that Pagliuca would have been the majority owner of the Nets, but it presents another interesting what-if scenario for Nets fans to ponder.

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Nets owner Joe Tsai hints at longer-term approach, which could benefit Rockets’ future draft picks

Brooklyn’s sudden emphasis on taking a longer-term approach could benefit Houston, which owns first-round draft assets from the Nets through 2027.

The Houston Rockets already landed Tari Eason and the No. 3 pick (via Brooklyn) in the 2024 NBA draft as part of the January 2021 blockbuster trade involving James Harden.

More assets from that Rockets-Nets deal are still to come over future years. Houston owns unprotected pick-swap rights with Brooklyn in the 2025 and 2027 first rounds, along with another unprotected pick conveyance from Brooklyn in 2026.

With that in mind, the latest comments by Nets owner Joe Tsai could be very encouraging, from a Houston perspective.

When recently asked about his team at J.P. Morgan’s Global China Summit in Shanghai, Tsai said on stage:

I want to build a winning mentality and culture that’s sustainable. Those two are very different things. If you just want to be win-now, you could ruin your future by trading away all of your assets. But I think what I want to do with the Brooklyn Nets is take a longer-term approach and build a sustainable, winning culture.

With a team that went 32-50 in the 2023-24 season, that longer-term approach doesn’t suggest an immediate return to form. In turn, that could make those Houston draft assets more desirable.

On the other hand, it might also suggest a desire by the Nets to reacquire their picks from the Rockets — since those talented prospects could help build the culture Tsai desires.

In a trade scenario for some or all of those Brooklyn assets, the Rockets could have a path to acquiring Mikal Bridges (likely Brooklyn’s best player, at present). Or, they could pursue draft assets that stretch further into the future — such as those Brooklyn owns from Phoenix in the Kevin Durant trade from early 2023.

With Houston featuring a roster deep in young players, there’s a case to be made that pushing those draft assets further into the future could preserve the asset value over a longer period. After all, the valuation of any prospect who struggles to show his on-court value (even if it’s due to a deep rotation) is likely to decline.

Or, the Rockets could simply stay the course with those Brooklyn picks, as is. Generally speaking, adding more talented players than expected is a good problem to have in the NBA.

All in all, it’s a good place to be for Rockets general manager Rafael Stone, since each of these paths involve Houston adding even more talented players and/or draft assets to its stockpile. Stay tuned!

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Nets owner Joe Tsai speaks on lessons learned since taking over the team

Brooklyn Nets owner Joe Tsai recently spoke about the lessons that he’s learned since becoming the majority owner of the franchise.

The Brooklyn Nets and their fanbase have been through a lot over the past few years given all of the controversy surrounding the team during the Big 3 era. One of the prominent figures during that timespan is owner Joe Tsai, who had some difficult situations to deal with as a owner learning on the job, so to speak.

“I think being the owner of a professional sports team in a major American sports league is a rarified existence because there’s only 32 NFL teams (and) 30 NBA teams, that’s it,” Tsai said during Yale University’s INSPIRE series earlier this month. Tsai became the majority owner of the Nets in September of 2019, just months after superstars Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving announced that they would be signing with the franchise.

“So, you could end up treating yourself too seriously. So, my first principle is don’t treat yourself too seriously,” Tsai explained. “Don’t become the face of the franchise because it’s not about you. Fans don’t care about you they care about the players they care about the star players.”

One of the themes that came up during the Big 3 era was the power struggle between Tsai and the superstars that were on the team, including James Harden for a time similar to grabbing a cup of coffee. While some fans blame Tsai for the breakup of the Big 3, it’s clear that Tsai has learned his lesson from those days and should be a better governor of the Nets as a result.

Tsai also recently spoke at J.P. Morgan’s Global China Summit in Shanghai on Friday and during that event, he explained his vision of where he sees Brooklyn going in the near future. In short, Tsai sees that the Nets are at a “crossroads” and that he wants to improve the team to be set up for winning over the long-term.

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Nets owner Joe Tsai speaks on the state of the Nets

At J.P. Morgan’s Global China Summit in Shanghai on Friday, Brooklyn Nets owner Joe Tsai spoke on the state of the team as it stands.

The Brooklyn Nets are coming off a 2023-24 season in which they finished with a disappointing 32-50 record after an encouraging 13-10 start to the season. One of the themes that became evident as the season went on is that Brooklyn has to find a way to rebuild and one key member of the franchise has finally spoken.

“In New York, the Brooklyn Nets is at a crossroads in a way,” Nets owner Joe Tsai said of the team at J.P. Morgan’s Global China Summit in Shanghai on Friday. After the dramatic breakup of the big three of Kevin Durant, James Harden, and Kyrie Irving, plenty of Nets fans have been calling for Tsai to issue a statement about the team that he governs.

“We didn’t do as well as we expected last season. We didn’t make the playoffs,” Tsai continued. “But we hope to revamp the team and make sure that we can compete in the long run… There’s a difference between I want to win, versus I want to build a winning mentality and culture that’s sustainable. Those two are very different things.”

As Tsai noted, the Nets are at a crossroads of some sort in that they’re not in a full rebuild, but they’re also not good enough to compete for a title anytime soon with the current construction of the roster. As of right now, Brooklyn has a good amount of draft capital (just not their own) and they have some talent on the roster.

The problem that Tsai and general manager Sean Marks has to figure out now is whether they want to make a massive trade this summer or if they would rather wait for next offseason when the free-agent class is expected to be more star-studded than it is this offseason. Either way, it seems that Tsai is willing to take his time as opposed to rushing the process.

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Report: Nets in talks with billionaire Julia Koch for 10% ownership stake

According to a report from Sportico on Thursday, the Brooklyn Nets are in talks with billionaire Julia Koch for her to become part-owner.

The Brooklyn Nets have been owned by Joseph Tsai since September 2019 and since then, the team has seen mixed results on the court due to a variety of factors. To add an interesting wrinkle to something that could impact the team years from now due to something off the floor, it’s possible that more voices could be added to the Nets soon.

Per a report on Thursday from Scott Soshnick and Eben Novy-Williams of Sportico, the Nets are in conversations with billionaire Julia Koch for her to acquire about 10% of an ownership stake in the Nets’ parent company, BSE Global. Koch, who was married to billionaire David Koch before he passed away on Aug. 23, 2019, is “looking to invest” along with her children, according to what the sources told Sportico.

BSE Global, which also owns Barclays Center and the WNBA’s New York Liberty, did not comment on the report, per Sportico. According to what one of the sources told Sportico, Koch Industries is not involved in the transaction and that Tsai, along with his wife Clara Wu, would retain control of the Nets.

This report is eerily similar to how the Tsais became owners of the Nets just a few years ago, aside from the percentage of ownership being purchased. While the Tsais became owners of the franchise in 2019, they initially purchased a 49% ownership stake in the team in October 2017 from then-owner Mikhail Prokhorov.

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Nets’ owner Joe Tsai says basketball players are ‘difficult to manage’

Nets’ owner Joe Tsai says basketball players are “difficult to manage.”

Brooklyn Nets owner Joe Tsai recently made an appearance at the BEYOND Expo 2023 conference and made some polarizing comments. Tsai, co-founder of Alibaba Group and also an owner of the New York Liberty, spoke at the gathering about how, in part, that AI will redefine digital entertainment.

In essence, Tsai said that he manages a basketball team and that the players are difficult to manage. Tsai did not mention any players specifically, but anyone who is familiar with the Nets over the past few seasons know how much drama happened with the organization during the time that Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, and James Harden were with the team.

There has been a lot of talk recently of how hard it is to manage more than one superstar on the same team, but Brooklyn was trying to win a championship by getting Durant and Irving to come to the Nets in the first place. Now that none of the aforementioned superstars are in Brooklyn, Tsai can go back to having an “easy” team.

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Joe Tsai says Kyrie Irving has work to do before return

Brooklyn Nets governor Joe Tsai said on Saturday that guard Kyrie Irving has work to do if he wants to resume playing for the Nets.

Brooklyn Nets governor Joe Tsai said on Saturday that guard Kyrie Irving has more to prove if he wants to resume playing for the Nets. Irving has been serving an indefinite suspension for tweeting a link to a movie deemed to be antisemitic and refusing to apologize for doing so until after he was suspended.

It was reported at the time that the suspension was for at least five games depending on how the situation unfolded. Irving missed the Nets’ 110-95 win over the Clippers on Saturday, the fifth game he has missed while suspension. However, it has now been reported that Irving will not play against the Lakers on Sunday which indicates that the suspension is ongoing. Tsai explains why Irving is not playing just yet.

“He still has work to do. He has to show people that he’s sorry. What’s important and what people miss is he only apologized after he was suspended.”

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Joe Tsai facing ‘strong’ pushback against Ime Udoka hire

The latest update on the Nets’ reported plans to hire Ime Udoka.

According to recent reporting from NBA insider Marc Stein, the Brooklyn Net’s plan to hire Ime Udoka as the club’s next head coach may be on pause. Stein stated there have been some “strong” opponents to the move within the league.

Last week Brooklyn and former head coach Steve Nash agreed to part ways and shortly thereafter the club was linked to suspended Celtics coach Ime Udoka. Despite currently serving a one-year suspension for an improper workplace relationship, Boston reportedly would allow Udoka to leave and take another head coaching job elsewhere.

Although Brooklyn’s aims to hire Udoka have been widely reported, the club has yet to officially announce anything. Reports of possible disagreement internally would help explain the Nets relative silence here. Interim coach Jacque Vaughn has been leading the club in the absence of any further changes on the sidelines.

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Report: Kyrie Irving ignored messages from Joe Tsai in buildup to suspension

According to a new report from ESPN, Nets owner Joe Tsai’s attempts to reach out to Kyrie Irving were met with silence.

The Brooklyn Nets suspended Kyrie Irving indefinitely on Thursday night, leading Irving to issue a long-awaited apology to the Jewish community for promoting an antisemitic film.

It was team governor Joe Tsai who first called out Irving publicly on Twitter on October 29th, writing that he wanted to sit down and discuss the situation with Irving.

In the following days, as Irving’s comments in the media exacerbated the situation, Tsai reportedly wanted to give Irving a chance to try to remedy the situation, and reportedly resisted pressure to punish Irving sooner.

As ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne and Adrian Wojnarowski reported on Friday, however, Tsai’s attempts to reach out to Irving personally were met with silence. According to ESPN, Irving did not return any of Tsai’s messages.

Via ESPN:

“Against the backdrop of calls for swift action, sources said Tsai had resisted and insisted on taking time to educate Irving on the horrors of antisemitism. He’d enlisted the counsel of the Anti-Defamation League, watched the full 3½ hours of the hate-filled movie Irving had shared.

…. As it turned out, the redemptive arc that Tsai had imagined for his star had devolved into what the owner felt was a repetitive exercise in Irving’s betrayal of good faith, sources said. For nearly a week, Tsai kept extending the clock to give Irving a chance to get this right for himself, the franchise and the Jewish community — and Irving never returned a single of his text messages, sources said.”

Nets general manager Sean Marks said Friday that if Irving is willing to take the steps laid out to him by the team, which include “objective remedial measures that address the harmful impact of his conduct,” the organization will then evaluate if Irving is ready to return.

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Nets’ Joe Tsai ‘disappointed’ in Kyrie Irving for promoting antisemitic film: ‘It is wrong to promote hate’

Joe Tsai issued a public condemnation of star guard Kyrie Irving after Irving tweeted a link to an antisemitic film.

In a crucial contract year, Nets star Kyrie Irving has so far been excelling on the court and saying all the right things to the media, holding his teammates accountable for a slow start to the year.

Just a few weeks into the season, though, Irving has suddenly become embroiled in yet another off-court controversy, one serious enough that Nets governor Joe Tsai issued a public condemnation in response on Twitter.

On Thursday, Irving tweeted an Amazon link to the film “Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America.” As detailed by Rolling Stone, the film contains antisemitic themes.

Via Rolling Stone:

“A description for the film states that it ‘uncovers the true identity of the Children of Israel,’ while a similar one for the book reads, “Since the European and Arab slave traders stepped foot into Africa, blacks have been told lies about their heritage.” Both suggest Hebrews to Negroes espouse ideas in line with more extreme factions of the Black Hebrew Israelites, which have a long history of misogyny, homophobia, xenophobia, Islamophobia, and especially antisemitism.”

The Nets released an initial response to Nets Daily, saying the “Nets strongly condemn and have no tolerance for the promotion of any form of hate speech.”

Tsai followed up with a personal response on Friday, tweeting that he wants to meet with Irving and “make sure he understands” it is “wrong to promote hate based on race, ethnicity or religion.”

Update: Irving has issued a response on Twitter.

Irving’s promotion of the film comes in the wake of Ye’s controversy over antisemitic remarks. The artist formerly known as Kanye West has lost various endorsement deals in recent days, and several athletes, notably Jaylen Brown and Aaron Donald, have cut ties with his Donda Sports agency.

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