Billy King new Nets' GM
The latest 76ers news from Philly.com.
Billy King new Nets' GM
Former 76ers general manager Billy King has been named the New Jersey Nets’ new general manager.
King was hired Wednesday to replace Rod Thorn as the team’s top executive, new owner Mikhail Prokhorov announced in a release.
Thorn is stepping aside as president and general manager on Friday. He has said he simply wants a change of scenery after a decade of running the team.
Prokhorov said on Tuesday his new chief executive would control both the job as president and general manager, something Thorn did in recent months after general manager Kiki Vandeweghe’s contract was not renewed.
Comments (47)
Wow, if the Sixers had waited a month they could have handed Sam and his contract right back to Billy.— 1980
Nice, maybe Billy will trade first round picks for Brand and Iggy!- Stefanski was previously the Nets GM and replaced Billy King as Sixers GM...now King gets Stefanski's old job as Nets GM...these guys keep making millions playing musical chairs.— Bill20
- SilliBilli - they have the cap space.....cmon Billy K - Brand could tutor favors, "dre will be all-NBA defender...who needs draft picks..— shova
- Its irrelevant. All NBA superstars except Carmelo Anthony are signed long term. Carmelo isn't coming there anyway. So King has no superstars available to sign, let alone the 2-3 needed to win. So he took a horrible job to gather a nice paycheck.— JonKap
Comment removed.- Billy actually doesn't draft too bad, it's the wheeling and dealing of trades and contracts that make him into a bad GM. I guess the bars in Avalon will get a bit less business this summer... and thanks again for the shots BK!— Twocents
- yep, its a paycheck, but what fun can you have being a GM for most NBA gm's? its all about trying to unload contracts or drafting guys who arent ready to play..it would seem to be about 1/10th of the workload and fun of being an MLB or NFL gm— jim715
WOW! Is New Jersey ever in for a "treat" with this guy! (LOL!!) The Nets won't likely recover from this move until sometime around 2020. (LOL!!!)- Comment removed.
- I'm happy for Billy and wish him all the best!!— WhatNow
- Hahhahahahaha...and I thought that Russsian was a bright guy.— davekrieg
- How do these guys keep getting work?— 12amrider
- Comment removed.
- Billy King was a good GM who never had any cap space...his fatal flaw was that he refused to blow the team up and start from scratch— ite483
- Welcome to the land of bad contracts, bad trades, and even worse management.— jaydes
- well the nets can't do any worse than last season.— flavious27
Will be interesting to see how it works in NJ. Billy and Avery Johnson could have been here. Billy has a lot to prove.- Should've held on to Sammy. I'm sure King wouldve traded Favors or Brook Lopez for him— NovaNation1024
- I'd take King over Stefanski. Billy would have never signed Elton Brand. I admittedly know little about basketball but I knew that was an awful deal. And Eddie Jordan? Give me a break, only an idiot would have thought he'd be the right guy.— booman55
- I agree with above post that Billy doesn't draft half bad. Mr. King looks pretty good compared to Ed Stupandanksi right now.— 76er
- I agree with above post that Billy doesn't draft half bad. Mr. King looks pretty good compared to Ed Stupandanksi right now.— 76er
- wow, someone dumb enough to give Silly King a job. at least the Sixers will be better than the nets,but the basement is the basement— bgwille
- Comment removed.
- Comment removed.
- Worst move Billy made was keeping A.I. over Chris Ford.— BCRock
- Comment removed.
Billy King already had Brand in his sights before he got fired. Those 2 are Duke homeboys. madmax374 is exatcly right on how good of a GM Billy was.- Comment removed.
- Kenny Thomas is a FA this year. Nets fans should be afraid! Also, I agree with other posters. BK didn't draft poorly (I give DiLeo much credit here though), it was the FAs and contracts that killed him.— DennyP
- ite483, what city were you living in? Billy King was a terrible GM who kept making moves that kept him from having Cap Space. He finally figured out at the end o fhis sixers run that it was better to have money available on the books than it was to sign averge or potential players to long term deals. Unfortunately, as soon as he figured it out and had cap space, he was fired so Uncle Eddy could come in and make basically the same mistakes that he did all over again.— Setdawgy
- King's fatal flaw was that he had to answer to Larry Brown. If King had his way, we would have paired Paul Pierce or Dirk Nowitzki with A.I. instead of Larry Hughes, whom Brown loved. I salivate imagining how good that team could have been if Larry Brown didn't have the power to muck up every draft from 1997 through 2002.— WhizWit
- Jay Z would have been a better hire. But Billy always seemed to like Iggy - even though he didn't make the cap-crushing deal (only Slow Eddie could have pulled that off), maybe he'll be interested in getting him back.— boomartin
- ite483, that makes no sense. King gave big contracts to a ton of guys. So he was responsible for no cap space.— JonKap
- Billy King's best move was signing Kenny Thomas to a 7 year deal which just ran out last season.— CallerNo9
- Future Headline: After 5 years of failure, Billy King missing. Main Suspects: Russian Mob.— TradeIggyNow
- Comment removed.
ummmmmmmmmmm... King created the "philly max" we will never know what he would have done with it... He had Brand in sight though... Brand, 2 no 1's lou and thad. For Damp and Captain Jack!!!!!!!!!!!! CUT DAMP!!!!!!!!!! Jrue, Captain jack, Iguodala, T Mac, Smith.— combocancer1975- In related news, the Nets sign Kenny Thomas to a six year 100 million dollar contract.— mjb
- Comment removed.
- I can't say I think that Nets made a good hire here. The posters have done a good job describing King's mistakes. King seemed to make a lot of friends in the media, and I think that, and questionable ownership, allowed him to keep his job as long as he did. King's firing showed, to this point, that the 76ers had other problems besides him, though. Other teams are moving players, being aggressive; the 76ers keep looking for more ways to market Evan Turner and keep his name in the headlines.— 76erfn
- Did he get hired on the basis of his "stellar" performance for the Sixers? It will be interesting to see who is judged better after this year, Billy or Ed...— JohnFC
- He had no cap space because HE gave so many mediocre players 6 year contracts HE was the reason they had no cap space.— mbutley
- So the Nets couldn't get King James so they got Billy King instead??— Prego614
- Comcast tied BK's hands because they were looking to sell the team. To move AI and to blow up the team was to rebuild was to lose games was to lose attendance was to reduce the value of the team. He admitted last year that he wanted to blow this thing up long before he finally got the go ahead. Comcast tied BK's hands. We would have been better off if they had let him do what was needed to rebuild instead of trying to win with Iverson being the best player on a team that was maxed out at the cap. Business decisions...BK takes the fall from fans who don't know any better— mold1103
- I've been laughing about this all day. Poor Nets fans, wherever they are. The league's competent GMs must be licking their chops. Foreign billionaire owner and the worst GM in the last decade not named Isiah. Christmas just came early for someone in need of a salary dump and a role player ready to get 60M.— thrilladelf
- Beautifully put, Madmax. The apologists need to get real and do some homework.— thrilladelf
1
Popular Posts
About this blog
Bob Cooney has been at the Daily News for more than 20 years, working in the sports department for the past 15. This is his third season on the Sixers beat. He has covered just about everything, but mostly college basketball, where he was the La Salle beat writer for six seasons. E-mail Bob at cooneyb@phillynews.com and follow him on Twitter.
Classifieds:
Site Services:
Partners:
Powered By:
