The Brooklyn Nets reportedly offered their general manager position to Spurs assistant GM Bobby Marks on Wednesday. Owner Mikhail Prokhorov denied that they did and even quipped that he had never heard that name before. Well one day later, the Nets have announced that Marks has been hired as the new GM, according to Net Income of SB Nation.
Marks is an 11-year NBA veteran who won a championship as an assistant coach with the Spurs in the 2013-14 season. Marks has been serving as the assistant GM to well respected general manager R.C. Buford for the last year-and-a-half. Prokhorov said in a statement that they are excited to have Marks on board.
"After an exhaustive vetting process, we are delighted to have Sean as our General Manager. His experience on the court, in coaching and management gives him a 360 degree view of the job at hand. His background helping to build one of the greatest teams in the NBA gives him an unparalleled frame of reference. And he impressed us all with his vision, his values, his personality and his enthusiasm for the club. The vote to select him from an incredible list of talent was unanimous. We welcome Sean into our Nets family and look forward to his strong leadership and independent thinking as we build our own success story," Prokhorov said.
It was reported on Wednesday, by Mitch Lawrence of Sporting News, that Marks was leaning towards not accepting the Nets job and that the Spurs were doing everything in their power to keep him, but in the end, he chose to leave.
"I am very excited to be named the General Manager of the Brooklyn Nets, and to become a member of the vibrant and dynamic organization that represents Brooklyn. I would like to thank Nets' ownership for giving me this opportunity, and I look forward to the challenge of creating a unified culture and building a winning team," Marks said.
Marks' deal with the Nets is a four-year contract, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. The Nets reportedly had to significantly increase their offer to Marks in order to persuade him to take the job, and in the end, it worked out for them and they got their top target.
Now that the Nets have a GM in place, they can turn their attention to finding a new head coach. The immediate favorite for the head coaching position is expected to be Spurs assistant coach Ettore Messina, according to Mike Mazzeo of ESPN New York, given the San Antonio connection. Messina also has a connection to Prokhorov, as he was the coach of CSKA Moscow in Russia when Prokhorov was the owner there. Messina became an assistant coach with the Spurs in 2014 and is highly regarded around the league, so hiring him as the next head coach would seem to be a solid move.
