INDIANAPOLIS – With a self-imposed deadline approaching but also gaining considerable flexibility, one of the candidates for a position in the Nets’ front office pulled himself out of the running yesterday.
Indiana general manager David Kahn, who had been on the YankeeNets list for the Nets’ team president’s job, said he informed principal owner Lewis Katz he could no longer be considered a candidate.
“I spoke with Lewis Katz this morning and told him that I could no longer be a candidate for the Nets job because with the timing, it’s just impossible. The timing is impossible for me and my family,” Kahn said. “I wish them well and whoever gets the job. I think it can be a unique job, a lot of fun and I hope everything works out for them.”
Kahn was one of the candidates on the Nets’ short list for the team president and newly-created director of basketball operations post that includes former Georgetown coach John Thompson, the Lakers Mitch Kupchak and Isiah Thomas.
YankeeNets chairman Harvey Schiller said last night that ideally, the new personnel would be in place by June 6, Tuesday, the start of the annual pre-draft camp in Chicago.
“But if nothing is done by Tuesday then obviously we’ll move on,” Schiller said, noting also that Michael Jackson, a member of YankeeNets core and one who worked with him at TNT, would not be appointed Nets’ president. “We are proceeding but a lot depends on when Lewis Katz makes his decision.”
Schiller declined to mention candidates for the posts but noted that there have been numerous names mentioned in press reports, many of them erroneous. Now, one is definitely out of the mix.
“Now, I wasn’t offered anything but I spoke with Mr. Katz,” Kahn, 38, said. “The process just doesn’t work time-wise for me for obvious reasons and they obviously need to put some things in place. They didn’t say, ‘You must give us an answer’ or anything but they indicated they had a timetable and [with the Pacers in the playoffs] I just couldn’t be a candidate under that timetable. It’s impossible for me to do that.”