Brooklyn Nets owner Joe Tsai admits he had ‘NO IDEA’ how to own a franchise when he first invested in team, as Alibaba chairman confesses ‘it doesn’t matter if you’re competitive’ for NBA franchises to make money

Brooklyn Nets owner Joe Tsai has admitted he had “no idea” how to become a sports franchise owner when he first invested in the team in 2017.

Tsai, a Taiwanese-Canadian billionaire who co-founded e-commerce company Alibaba, bought 49 percent of the Nets seven years ago before taking over outright from previous owner Mikhail Prokhorov in 2019.

And Tsai, by his own admission, didn’t have much knowledge of the NBA before investing his billions in the Nets, in quotes first reported by NetsDaily.

“When the Brooklyn Nets went up for sale, this was in 2017, I really had no idea how to invest and become an owner of a sports team,” Tsai told Nicolai Tangen at the “In good company‘podcast.

‘Then I looked at the characteristics of the competition, how the competition shares the economy. One of the great things about the NBA is that they have a very good collective bargaining agreement that divides the economics between the teams – the owners – and the players.

Tsai’s Nets traded away superstars Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant last season

“The players really deliver value, right, so they should get their fair share of the economy and that’s all set out in the collective bargaining agreement,” he continued. “The other thing about the NBA is that all 30 teams — it doesn’t matter if you’re competitive or not — there’s a mechanism that allows all teams, even the small markets, to be competitive and also make money.”

Tsai’s Nets have been far less competitive than they expected this season, with a team that is currently 32-48 and will miss the postseason.

The disappointing campaign comes a year after the team abruptly pulled the plug on the Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving era, trading both disgruntled stars to the Western Conference after the pair – along with James Harden – missed just one postseason series after arriving in Brooklyn. managed to achieve victory.

The Nets expected a core of Mikal Bridges, Cam Johnson, Cam Thomas and Nic Claxton to flirt with the playoffs this season, but were reminded how difficult it is to win without a true superstar.

Tsai said in the interview that a good quality of leadership is “being willing to admit mistakes.”

And Tsai, asked about which aspects of leadership are important to him, said: “You have to be willing to admit mistakes.”

“…You can’t always pretend you’re the smartest person in the room,” he said. ‘Sometimes people are looking for that leadership.’

Tsai has certainly put a lot of his money into the Nets, reportedly spending $323 million on luxury tax penalties since buying the team, and also paying off debt for the construction of the Barclays Center, which he also owns.

Still, his admission that “it doesn’t matter if you’re competitive” to make money as a franchise will scare some Nets fans.

Brooklyn will look for a new permanent head coach this offseason after firing Jacque Vaughn in February.