The Brooklyn Nets have hired Atlanta Hawks assistant Kenny Atkinson as their new head coach, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports.
Sources on @TheVertical: The Brooklyn Nets have hired Atlanta assistant Kenny Atkinson as head coach. https://t.co/kPX2u7f3FV
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) April 17, 2016
Atkinson, 48, has agreed to a multi-year contract and has a reputation for being a great player developer, something that should work incredibly well for a Nets team that features just one player over the age of 30, 32-year-old guard Jarrett Jack.
Atkinson himself is originally from Long Island, New York and played his college ball at Richmond before enjoying a 14-year career playing in Europe. He joined the NBA as a New York Knicks assistant in 2008 and remained there through 2012, when he headed to Atlanta to become part of coach Mike Budenholzer’s staff. Atkinson also coached the national team of the Dominican Republic for a year, so he has definitely earned enough stripes to earn a shot at an NBA head coaching job.
And in Brooklyn, he will become the Nets’ sixth coach of the past five years as team management tries to get the formula right at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center. Hopefully, for the sake of owner Mikhail Prokhorov’s multibillion dollar investment, Kenny Atkinson will be the correct solution.
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*Featured Photo (above) credit to USA TODAY Sports
