Brooklyn Nets head coach Jason Kidd was never on the hot seat even after the rough start of his team in the 2013-14 NBA season, and the patience of owner Mikhail Prokhorov has started to pay off for the team that has now risen to 16-22 in the standings and 6-1 in the New Year.
According to ESPN.com, the Russian billionaire called his coach after one of the team's blowout losses and assured him that he was not on the hot seat. "Don't believe what you read. Ignore the critics. You're my guy," Prokhorov reportedly told Kidd.
"Mikhail is the best," Kidd told ESPN.com. "He's got a great sense of humor, but he wants to win, and everybody that's wearing a Net uniform or is employed by the Nets, we all want to win. We might not have gotten off to the start that we wanted, but it's a process and the biggest thing is from our owners to our players, no one panicked. And we feel that we're getting better each day and we've still got some room to grow and get healthy and see what happens."
When asked about the difference between Kidd and former Nets coach Avery Johnson, who was axed last year despite a 14-14 record. "What is more important is that Jason Kidd is being more and more comfortable. And what is important is he has the support of the players," Prokhorov replied.
Prokhorov also said to his coach: "I told him about a very famous Russian writer Mikhail Bulgakov, who said, 'Don't read Soviet papers before breakfast. In other words, don't pay any attention to what they are writing about. Just keep doing your job."
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