Nets owner Joe Tsai speaks on lessons learned since taking over the team
The Brooklyn Nets and their fanbase have been through a lot over the past few years given all of the controversy surrounding the team during the Big 3 era. One of the prominent figures during that timespan is owner Joe Tsai, who had some difficult situations to deal with as a owner learning on the job, so to speak.
“I think being the owner of a professional sports team in a major American sports league is a rarified existence because there’s only 32 NFL teams (and) 30 NBA teams, that’s it,” Tsai said during Yale University’s INSPIRE series earlier this month. Tsai became the majority owner of the Nets in September of 2019, just months after superstars Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving announced that they would be signing with the franchise.
“So, you could end up treating yourself too seriously. So, my first principle is don’t treat yourself too seriously,” Tsai explained. “Don’t become the face of the franchise because it’s not about you. Fans don’t care about you they care about the players they care about the star players.”
One of the themes that came up during the Big 3 era was the power struggle between Tsai and the superstars that were on the team, including James Harden for a time similar to grabbing a cup of coffee. While some fans blame Tsai for the breakup of the Big 3, it’s clear that Tsai has learned his lesson from those days and should be a better governor of the Nets as a result.
Tsai also recently spoke at J.P. Morgan’s Global China Summit in Shanghai on Friday and during that event, he explained his vision of where he sees Brooklyn going in the near future. In short, Tsai sees that the Nets are at a “crossroads” and that he wants to improve the team to be set up for winning over the long-term.
