A game after Nets CEO Brett Yormark laced into a fan sitting at courtside wearing a brown paper bag over his head, at least the team is keeping a sense of humor. Everyone who came to last night’s 93-79 win over the Kings with a brown bag had it swapped for a Nets bag filled with team goodies.
Inside each nylon Nets bags was a poster, a set of trading cards and a greeting card that read “Thanks for letting us see your face. We hope to see you more often at Nets games, regards CEO Brett Yormark.”
The bag included his email, so fans can offer constructive criticism.
“What happened, happened,” Yormark said before last night’s game. “I didn’t agree with how the fan expressed his point of view of our franchise. I consider myself one of the most accessible CEOs in this market, I email anyone that emails me, I return every phone call from fans. If someone has a point of view of our franchise that’s constructive, call me, email me. I’m here; I’m accessible.
“We didn’t need to stoop to that level . . . having someone come out and hide behind a brown bag, but it happened. I’ve invited the gentleman — we’re trying to coordinate a bag lunch in my office next week where we sit down and talk constructively about it and we might even [stream] it live so the fans can hear a nice, constructive conversation on the state of the team, the direction we’re going.
“We think we have a great future ahead, and I certainly want to express that to this particular individual. He was here on free tickets, OK, which made it even worse, because when you come into someone’s home for dinner, you don’t insult them, and I took that as an insult. But, that being said we move on. We’ll have a little fun tonight with the fans, and that’s it.”
The Nets came into last night drawing a league-low 13,007 fans, and mustered a paltry 10,068 to see a rare victory. At 8-63 they still need to win twice to avoid the Philadelphia 76ers’ dubious mark of 9-73 for the worst in NBA history.
When Yormark was asked if his public dust-up Monday with Chris Lisi, the 20-year-old fan from Middletown, N.J., would incite bag-adorned copycats, he didn’t appear worried about it.
“I don’t know; there could be. And if they do, that’s fine. We’ll have a little fun with it,” Yormark said. “We have a Nets bag that we’ll replace the brown bag with that’ll have some goodies and we’ll have some fun. [It’ll have] a card with my email address, so if people do want to call me about the team it’s my pleasure to discuss it.”
If anything, the players suffering through this tough season appreciated Yormark “sticking up for them,” as one said.
As far as franchise center Brook Lopez was concerned, Lisi got off easy because “Rod [Thorn, team president] would’ve given him an hour-long lecture.”