Subscribe
Follow Us
Brooklyn Nets general manager Sean Marks has been praised for instilling a positive culture within this roster, one he was able to develop after many lessons from his time with the San Antonio Spurs. After retiring from a 13-year playing career in the league, Marks was quickly named basketball operations assistant for the Spurs and the general manager for their D-League affiliate, the Austin Toros. He then became an assistant coach with the Spurs in 2013 and won the title with them in 2014 against a loaded Miami Heat team.
His five-year run with the organization gave him a deep insight as to what he would do once he was named the Nets' GM in 2016:
Article Continues Below
“I always remember the big picture way Pop looked at things,” Marks told Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated. “You could sit there and deliberate on an idea, whether it was a free agent, or a draft guy, or as simple as your travel schedule and should you practice on a day or should this be an off day? The way he was able to just focus and really, for lack of a better term, dumb things down and really simplify things to show, “Well, this is how we're going to do it. Let’s look at it. What does Tim Duncan want to do? How does Manu Ginobili feel about this?” I think there's a lot of that that we try to do, and not get lost in the weeds. If we can stay true to our building blocks, the things that really matter, we won't get carried away and worried about all the little things that can somehow derail a vision pretty quickly.”
Marks' approach to culture isn't as simple as determining a set of values and making them into commandments, but instead approaching each situation as a human being, rather than a prominent executive, which has helped him develop strong relationships with his staff and his players.
Much like Gregg Popovich, Marks has quickly become a popular face in his own franchise, and is believed to have played a large part in why the duo of Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant chose to take their talents across the bridge to Brooklyn.
