EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) -Rod Thorn built the New Jersey Nets into an Eastern Conference power, then had to break them apart for financial reasons.
Now, as he is preparing to walk away, the Nets are ready to become spenders again.
First, Thorn will take one last shot at making them contenders once more in a crucial week for the franchise.
“This is the fun for me,” he said Tuesday. “I look forward to this every year and hopefully we will be successful.”
Thorn is leaving as Nets president next month but has agreed to stick around through the first two weeks of free agency. He’ll travel with new owner Mikhail Prokhorov, part-owner Jay-Z and new coach Avery Johnson to Ohio to pitch LeBron James on Thursday, then be back in New York the next day for visits from Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.
“Building a story, letting whomever we get in front of hear that story, selling that story, I think is very exciting,” Thorn said.
in.
The Nets endured a 12-70 nightmare last season, one of the worst records in NBA history. Thorn had to fire coach Lawrence Frank during an NBA-worst, 18-game losing streak to begin the season, and New Jersey completed a decline that had been a few years in the making.
Most of the moves Thorn made in recent years were financially driven, with owner Bruce Ratner’s focus on a Brooklyn arena project he had hoped to complete this year but is delayed until 2012.
Thorn first traded Jason Kidd, the player he’d acquired to kick-start the Nets’ run to back-to-back NBA finals in 2002-03. Richard Jefferson was later dealt, and finally Vince Carter was shipped out last year on draft night.
Prokhorov’s purchase should mean no more trades dictated by the bottom line. The Nets have about $30 million to spend in free agency after Thorn traded Yi Jianlian to Washington on Tuesday, and Thorn likely has the green light to use all of it.
“I think we have some good young pieces, that we have a team that is only going to get better, that we have an owner that’s committed to having the best possible team he can have, that we’re going into an area and an arena in a couple of years that will be second to none, and that and we’re committed to having a good team,” Thorn said.
So why is he leaving it?
that it’s just time,” Thorn said. “I think some new direction, some fresh people will be very good for this franchise.”
He wanted to speak little about his decision, which he never officially announced, beyond insisting that he’s not retiring from basketball. He acknowledged the idea of leaving when he could be so close to winning again “weighed into everything that I thought about.”
The choice to leave now has created speculation of a rift with the new ownership, perhaps over his salary, or even that he was being forced out after a decade in charge. Thorn has denied that, though he declined to say how Prokhorov reacted when he said he was leaving.
“I’ve been around a long time and have been very fortunate to have been in several situations that were very positive and that’s how I look at this,” Thorn said.
Beyond free agency, he said he will concentrate on helping find his successor, though he couldn’t say how quickly that would be done. General managers Sam Presti of Oklahoma City and Jeff Bower of New Orleans, plus Nets vice president Bobby Marks are considered leading candidates.
Whoever gets the job could be walking into a terrific situation, if Thorn can pull off one final score on his way out the door.
“It’s been a very positive situation for me for the time I’ve been here and it’s not over yet, so I still have work to do,” Thorn said.
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