Brooklyn Nets Hire Spurs’ Sean Marks as their next General Manager

The Brooklyn Nets have hired Sean Marks away from the San Antonio Spurs to be their next general manager.

Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov released this statement in a press release:

"After an exhaustive vetting process, we are delighted to have Sean as our General Manager. His experience on the court, in coaching and management gives him a 360 degree view of the job at hand. His background helping to build one of the greatest teams in the NBA gives him an unparalleled frame of reference. And he impressed us all with his vision, his values, his personality and his enthusiasm for the club. The vote to select him from an incredible list of talent was unanimous. We welcome Sean into our Nets family and look forward to his strong leadership and independent thinking as we build our own success story."

The announcement was made on Thursday, one day after Prokhorov claimed he "never heard" of Marks before when he was asked about the potential candidates for the general manager position.

Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical reported that the offer was for four-years. League sources added that the Nets had to up their offer late Wednesday night to convince Marks to sign.

Marks said, in the same release, "I am very excited to be named the General Manager of the Brooklyn Nets, and to become a member of the vibrant and dynamic organization that represents Brooklyn. I would like to thank Nets' ownership for giving me this opportunity, and I look forward to the challenge of creating a unified culture and building a winning team.

Marks will be responsible for not only finding the team's next head coach but also for shaping the front office staff. Potential coaching candidates include Tom Thibodeau, David Blatt and Ettore Messina, who is also from the Spurs.

Marks, who played in the NBA for 12 years, has been an assistant coach under Gregg Popovich since 2013.