Half of Jay Z’s Brooklyn Nets ownership stake will now rest in the hands of head coach Jason Kidd.
The New York Post reported that Kidd would be purchasing the entire 0.67 percent of the team Jay Z owns for a cool $500,000:
Jay Z is selling his minority ownership in the Brookyn Nets to coach Jason Kidd, sources exclusively tell Page Six.
We’re told Kidd will take over Jay’s .067 percent (1/15th of a percent) stake in the team for about $500,000.
…
A source told us, “Other owners want to give Jason a part ownership of the team, and urged Jay to sell his shares to him.”
Details of the transaction are still a bit murky, as Nets Daily is reporting that only half of Jay Z’s shares will be sold to Kidd:
A Nets source tells NetsDaily that Jay Z is selling half his shares in the team to Jason Kidd, the team’s new head coach. The cost: $500,000. The other half of Jay Z’s stake has been purchased by a minority owner in the team. It’s unclear whether Kidd’s stake includes part of Barclays Center.
The New York Post first reported the news on Page Six, saying Kidd was purchasing all of Jay Z’s stake. However, the source, who has knowledge of the transaction, told NetsDaily Kidd is buying half the entertainer’s shares.
According to the source, Jay Z controlled 0.1608 percent of the Nets, or roughly 1/6 of 1 percent through Nets Sports and Entertainment (not 1/15th of one percent, as reported by the Times last year and the Post Wednesday.)
Bottom line is Kidd will be owning a sliver of the Nets. A very small and insignificant, albeit relatively expensive, sliver.
For Jay Z the move was inevitable. As he continues to chase his apparently lifelong dream of taking over the sporting industry as an agent, he needed to unload his tiny stake in the Nets organization. And at the behest of Brooklyn’s big whigs, he unloaded all of it, or some of it, to the team’s raw head coach.
Which brings me to my next point: it’s been a great summer for Kidd. “Great” doesn’t even do it justice. There’s great, grand and then the offseason Kidd has had.
Since being held scoreless in what turned out to be the final 10 games of his career, Kidd has retired, landed a coaching position with a team devoid of self-imposed spending limits and now, he’s a part owner. Kind up sums up my summer in a nutshell as well.
Part of me remains a bit confused as to why the Nets are so hell-bent on making Kidd a part owner. Are they that confident he’ll succeed on the sidelines that they want him involved in as much of the organization as possible? Do they just not like Jay Z? Is Kidd using black magic to control the thoughts and desires of one Mikhail Prokhorov?
Getting in bed with a coach like this is serious business. Jay Z may not have owned enough of the team to seem like he mattered outside of billboards and various forms of propaganda, but the ties reportedly being forged here speak to a long-term relationship, not one that began just a couple months ago.
Alas, the NBA continues to surprise us. Especially those guys in Brooklyn, who dance to the beat of their own drum and spend to the tune of their own salary cap.
Dan Favale is a firm believer in the three-pointer as well as the notion that defense doesn’t always win championships. His musings can be found at Bleacherreport.com in addition to TheHoopDoctors.com. Follow @danfavale on Twitter for his latest posts and all things NBA.
