No more “bling-bling”! This is what we can deduce from the words of Joe Tsai interviewed during a conference in Shanghai. While its leaders have chosen to entrust the reins to Jordi Fernandez, the owner of the Nets assures that the goal is to create an identity, and no longer to aim for the title at all costs.
“The Brooklyn Nets are kind of at a crossroads,” he explains to his audience. “We didn't get the results we expected last season, we didn't make the playoffs. But we hope to reorganize the team and make sure we can be competitive in the long term. »
Don't ruin the future with trade
He assures that he wants to work over the long term, and not mortgage the future with big short-term blows. The opposite of what the Nets did when Mikhail Prokhorov took power in 2013 with the arrivals of Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce, then when Joe Tsai went to get James Harden to support Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving.
“There is a difference between 'I want to win' and 'I want to build a winning mentality and culture that is sustainable.' They are two very different things.” he continues. “If you just want to win now, you risk ruining your future by trading away all your assets… What I want to do with the Brooklyn Nets is take a longer-term approach and build a winning, sustainable culture “.
The franchise will always be bigger than its owner
Another important element of its strategy: stepping aside to concentrate on the public.
“Owning a franchise in a major American sports league is a rarity, because there are very few. There are 32 NFL teams, 30 NBA teams. That's all “, he explained in another conference at the beginning of May.“So we can end up taking ourselves too seriously. So my first principle is don't take yourself too seriously… Don't become the face of the franchise because it's not about you. The fans don't care about you. They care about the players. They are interested in star players. And the second thing about owning a sports franchise is who you work for. You work for the fans! So you have to arrive with this state of mind, especially when you have a major franchise in a big city, it's an institution. It's not about you. It's something much bigger than you and I feel like a guarantor of the team. I want our supporters to be proud. This is my state of mind. »
