Nets Owner Publicly Responds To Durant’s Ultimatum



As reported on Monday, Kevin Durant had his meeting with Brooklyn Nets owner Joe Tsai, and gave him an ultimatum: trade me, or fire GM Sean Marks and head coach Steve Nash.

Tsai has responded publicly, essentially in the only way he possibly could if he wanted to maintain any credibility as a team owner: he has given Marks and Nash a vote of confidence. He took to Twitter to announce it himself.

"Our front office and coaching staff have my support. We will make decisions in the best interest of the Brooklyn Nets."

In fact, Durant's demand was so outrageous, even if Tsai had wanted to or was planning to fire either Nash or Marks, now he simply can't, due to the horrendous optics that would cause. 

Most in the industry are fully behind Tsai in his stance. Including the hosts at SirusXM's NBA Radio.

"Don't ever come into my office again and make ultimatums about who I should keep and who I should fire" is what Frank Isola said that Joe Tsai should have said to Durant. "Unless we get a deal that we want, we're not making a deal. Is that understood?"

Justin Termine wrote, "The Nets let Durant make decisions for 3 years, & it led to one playoff series win & one controversy after another. Why let him keep making more? He clearly doesn’t know how to run a team."

Training camp is just six weeks away. If a trade isn't done by then, the situation in Brooklyn could even more toxic. 

Vincent Carchietta-USA TODAY Sports