Brooklyn Nets owner, Russian billionaire, political player, and fake journalist Mikhail Prokhorov refused to fuel rumors and speculation regarding a coaching search directly, repeating the mantra that interim coach P.J. Carlesimo currently held the team’s coaching reigns.
Prokhorov said some iteration of “P.J. is our coach” five times in the span of two minutes, throwing his full support behind Carlesimo. “We need to give support to our head coach. It’s very important. I don’t want to stoke any kind of rumors and speculation,” Prokhorov said. “P.J. is the head coach, and I think we have a lot of trust in him. Really I want him to lead the team.”
Of course, when the inevitable “guy that’s won 11 championship” came up — former Bulls and Lakers coach Phil Jackson — Prokhorov was coy. “P.J. is the head coach,” he said. “If it becomes necessary, you know who the usual suspects are.”
In a follow-up, when Prokhorov was asked if he’d meet with that specific “usual suspect,” Prokhorov only said: “I will meet tomorrow with P.J.”
It was not clear which P.J. Prokhorov was referring to. In the post-game press conference, Carlesimo confirmed that he was meeting Prokhorov tomorrow for lunch.
