In new book on sports owners, Joe Tsai talks about unexpected lessons learned

In a new book out next Tuesday, David Rubenstein, owner of the Baltimore Orioles, interviews sports franchise owners across America about what the view is like from the executive suites at arenas and stadiums across America.

Per the promotion, “From the Owner’s Box” examines, “the financial strategies, leadership secrets, and billion-dollar deal-making behind championship franchises through conversations with America’s most powerful owners.” And in the case of Brooklyn Nets Joe Tsai, how being a fan and reacting to fans is a big part of the job.

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In an excerpt of the book, New York Post writer Eric Spitznagel, Tsai described first few months as an owner … and the ramifications of making a big move early.

Tsai, 62, knows how quickly an expensive trade can turn an owner into a target. The Alibaba cofounder, worth an estimated $12.1 billion, still takes heat from fans for the January 2021 trade that brought James Harden to Brooklyn alongside Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving.

Durant and Irving had arrived in 2019, before Tsai became controlling owner. Harden was his gamble, acquired at the cost of players and valuable draft assets. The trio never delivered a championship.

“The Harden decision was definitely on my watch,” Tsai tells Rubenstein. “That’s why I’m hated by fans on social media.”

(The excerpt, however, doesn’t make mention of Tsai’s decisions re: Kyrie Irving’s antics during the first months of Tsai’s ownership, including the superstar’s decision not to get vaccinated against COVID or his implicit endorsement of a book filled with antisemitic tropes. Both led to lost time, lost games and a lot of controversy for Tsai. We’ll have to wait for the book to see whether it is mentioned there.)

Rubenstein’s book does address a lesser-known part of Tsai’s legacy, a proposed trade that would test his personal fandom.

In July 2018, while still a 49% owner of the Nets, Tsai heard from Sean Marks about a trade the Nets GM was planning to make, a deal that would send Jeremy Lin to the Atlanta Hawks. Lin wasn’t just a Chinese-American whose LinSanity while a Knick years earlier had ignited pride among Asians and…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/book-sports-owners-joe-tsai-165054488.html

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Publish date : 2026-09-19 16:50:00

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