This post won’t be about insurance, or taxes, or even defensive driving.
Next time.
This post is about the sea change already happening to the Brooklyn Nets. Changes for the good.
And many folks who read this post won’t like what I’ve written because it’s the truth.
I know many people who were poor immigrants to this country, only to become successful. When they first arrived, they cared less about buying cars and clothes, big-screen TVs, sneakers costing more than $40.00, and even having their own bed or own apartment. They shared apartments, and slept in shifts, sharing a bed. They shared a pot of stew or peas and rice. And if someone had a good week, there might have even been a piece of pork thrown in the pot for seasoning.
They took advantage of any educational opportunity they could get their hands on, often while working at several minimum-wage jobs to achieve their goals. They instilled the value of education into their children, demanding they become the number one student in their class and their school. It’s an annual rite to read about some high school valedictorian on their way to an Ivy-League school, carrying SAT scores in the high 2200’s, who four years earlier couldn’t read or write any English at all.
And children born here can’t read and write well enough to save themselves from becoming the profit margin for the prison industrial complex.
And another thing. They came here with goals, written down on paper. They left themselves no room for excuses. In the words of Yoda, “There is no try. Do, or do not.”
You see, for them coming to the USA is not a joke, it’s life’s greatest opportunity. There’s always be another party.
So, here’s Mikhail Prokharov, a guy who worked his tail off in Russia, acquired great wealth, and even has the cojones to run against Vladmir Putin for the Presidency of Russia. He’s so busy building his empire, he doesn’t even have a girlfriend.
Which is driving his sister nuts. She won’t be happy until he’s married with children.
I don’t think he wanted to fire Avery Johnson: He simply made a statement. Everyone in the Nets organization, from Billy (“Baby, let’s pay off the mortgage, the cars, and the kids’ educations right now”) King, down to the lowliest ticket taker or floor sweeper, that for them, the new American way is based on the Russian values he grew up with.
Values that will send NBA prima donnas to basketball Siberias they didn’t even know existed.
So to everyone who screams “Brooklyn” in the new arena like it’s some inane proof of fealty to the County of Kings, there’s a new sheriff in town. And “good enough” in his language, means failure. Pity these poor Nets should they fail to achieve the goals Prokhorov’s written on his piece of paper.
Tell you one thing: The Nets will win an NBA championship within three years. Only the best of the best will want to play for this owner, because they know he’ll do everything in his power to help them win.
Failure to win is not an option.
