Rod Thorn Retiring July 15

[Teletopez]

For nearly a month, the worst-kept secret throughout the Nets organization was that team president Rod Thorn was refusing to sign his two-year contract extension for a valid reason: His wife, Peggy, was strongly urging the 69-year-old executive to retire.

 

Thorn finally gave in last week, two Nets officials disclosed after requesting anonymity tonight, confirming an ESPN report that Thorn will step down shortly after the free agency signing period on July 8.

 

Thorn had continuously been asked about his status in the last few weeks, dismissing inquiries about the June 30 expiration date on his present contract with uncomfortable remarks such as “I’m irrelevant,” and “It will take care of itself over time.”

 

It is also understood that Thorn will be chiefly responsible for picking his successor. His current general manager, Kiki Vandeweghe, is being let go by the team, and Prokhorov had asked Thorn to fill both positions when he took control of the team in May.

 

There are innumerable candidates for the position, but one of the most qualified – former Portland VP Kevin Pritchard, who was fired this week – may not be close enough to Thorn to be a candidate for the job. Pritchard’s former assistant, Tom Penn, also was let go by the Trail Blazers recently.

 

Thorn is fairly close with two other qualified candidates currently unemployed, Danny Ferry and Steve Kerr. The last executive Thorn tried to hire was current Knicks personnel chief John Gabriel, who lost out to Vandeweghe in Dec. of 2007.

Dave D'Alessandro

 

Thanks for everything, Rod. Some of the moves over recent years have been questioned, but now we are looking at an offseason in which we are extremely flexible in terms of what we can do to win it all with a great crew on which to build. Even before recent years, we saw the incredible Kidd-Marbury deal as well as the Carter trade that brought significant changes to the team.

 

Al Iannazzone said that Jerry Colangelo could be offered a three-year contract.

[Universe]

Put in the GM whose been in constant talks with the bigs names through Team USA. Very smart but hope he brings in a nice young assistant GM as well.