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Mikhail Prokhorov famously said that his Nets would “turn Knicks fans into Nets fans.” The Nets owner, a confirmed bachelor, also promised that if the Nets didn’t win a title in five years, he’d get married. Spoiler alert: None of those things happened.
So Sam Zussman, now president of Nets parent Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment under Prokhorov’s successor Joe Tsai, has come up with a different, long term plan — generational fandom — essentially getting them while they’re young.
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In a wide-ranging and rare interview Monday with an Israeli business site, the Israeli-born Zussman laid out the plan in detail and suggested that the payoff may not come for a decade or more but could eventually pay dividends for a half-century or more. At a moment when the Knicks look like the Showtime Lakers and pundits as well as fans are lamenting the team’s bad luck in the Lottery — even suggesting the franchise is cursed — the comments have particular relevancy.
Zussman spoke as well about fandom in general, including how while he’s admittedly “frustrated” in not being able to control winning and losing on the court, he can control the experience off it.
Here’s the full interview…
In addition, the former IDF officer spoke about his relationship with the Nets’ two Israeli players and how he brought wounded Israeli soldiers to both a Nets game and practice last year as part of their recovery. Zussman has been active in raising funds for wounded Israeli soldiers.
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In the interview with CTech, which took place recently in New York at an Israeli tech conference, Zussman noted that the Nets relatively short stay in Brooklyn put them at a disadvantage compared to the the generational fan base of older franchises. Although he didn’t say, the obvious comparison is to the Knicks.
“We’ve only moved to Brooklyn 14 years and we’ve never won a championship. So, we don’t have this generational fandom of a grandfather or a grandmother taking … or you as a parent have gone to a game with with your parents and you’re now taking your son or daughter. And I realized that needs to…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/sam-zussman-generational-fandom-ai-203901763.html
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Publish date : 2026-05-13 20:39:00
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