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The situation in Brooklyn has become clear that owner Mikhail Prokhorov was willing to let the team “battle” while still in New Jersey but once they moved to Brooklyn the kid gloves were coming off.
People will now be held responsible for their records and place in the standings now that $330 million went into the teams salary this past summer and Avery Johnson was the first to find this out. Going 3-10 in December after an 11-4 start will not cut it in Brooklyn. Period.
PJ Carlesimo was given the job to coach the Brooklyn Nets last week , on an interim basis, and he isn’t look too far down the road with all of the scenarios and options this presents.
In his first press conference he was asked if he would like the job full time and he quipped about the situation.
“If I had a choice of someone else getting the job or me, I would have to think about it but I would probably pick me. It really isn’t something I am thinking about because I don’t have a good sense of what is going on, I think they are still looking at it.” Carlesimo said. “My job is an assistant that is minding the store and we’ll see what happens. We are day to day, especially this thing right now.”
Carlesimo has been extremely honest and humorous during his first two days on the job with the media and does not looked overwhelmed by the situation at all. One night after winning his first game as interim coach he was in a joking mood again when he was asked about the lunch he had with the Russian owner.
When asked about the details of the lunch he jokingly sidestepped the questions by telling the media they discussed great places to eat in Brooklyn and that the owner really likes “winning.”
Billy King did an interview with Ian O’Connor of ESPN New York 98.7 FM on Sunday morning saying that the team “supports” interim coach P.J. Carlesimo and will “re-evaluate” things moving forward, while all the while deflecting any question about Phil Jackson by repeatedly saying “P.J.’s our coach.”
“We’ve put our support behind (P.J.) and then we’ll look at things and evaluate it later,” King went on to say. “I know people have been throwing lists together and things like that, but we have not contacted anybody. … We’ve made the move and now we’re going to let P.J. coach.”
Jeff Van Gundy is on the short list of candidate’s after Phil Jackson and he immediately sent word to Yahoo! Sports that he would not talk about another coaches job during the season.
“I would never comment on a job that was filled,” said Van Gundy. “I was an interim coach. I hope P.J. has great success there. He’s someone I respect greatly.”
Other candidates that are being bantered about by analysts everywhere are Nate McMillan, Kelvin Sampson and Mike Dunleavy.
Jackson is the leader with the popular vote to see who coaches the Nets next but nothing will happen until after the New Year as Jackson’s agent is on vacation until then.
Until then PJ is just “minding the store” and taking it “day by day” and so are the Nets.
John Paolantonio is a Featured Columnist for www.RantSports.com, covering the Brooklyn Nets. Follow John on twitter @pingshoops and like his page on FaceBook.
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