Brooklyn Nets owner Joe Tsai admits he had “NO idea” how to own a franchise when he first invested in the team, while Alibaba’s president confesses that “it doesn’t matter if you’re competitive” for the franchises. NBA franchises make money.

Brooklyn Nets owner Joe Tsai admitted he had “no idea” how to own a sports franchise when he made his initial investment in the team in 2017.

Tsai, a Taiwanese-Canadian billionaire who co-founded the e-commerce company Alibaba, bought 49 percent of the Nets seven years ago before fully assuming control from previous owner Mikhail Prokhorov in 2019.

And Tsai, in his own words, didn’t have much knowledge of the NBA before investing his billions in the Nets, in quotes first reported by NetsDaily.

“When the Brooklyn Nets went up for sale, this was in 2017, I really had no idea how to invest and own a sports team,” Tsai told Nicolai Tangen in the “In good company‘ podcast.

‘Then I looked at the characteristics of the league, how the league shares the economy. One of the best things about the NBA is that it has a very good collective bargaining agreement that divides the economy between the teams (the owners) and the players.

Tsai’s Nets traded superstars Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant last season

“The players are really providing value, right, so they should get their fair share of the economy and that’s all set out in the collective bargaining agreement,” he continued. “The other thing about the NBA is that all 30 teams, no matter if they are competitive or not, there is a mechanism for all the teams, even the small markets, to be competitive and also make money.”

Tsai’s Nets have been much less competitive than they planned to be this season, with the team currently 32-48 and set to miss the postseason.

The disappointing campaign comes a year after the team abruptly pulled the plug on its Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving era, trading both disgruntled stars to the Western Conference after the pair, along with James Harden, managed just one series win. postseason after arriving in Brooklyn.

The Nets expected a core of Mikal Bridges, Cam Johnson, Cam Thomas and Nic Claxton to flirt with playoff contention this season, but were reminded how difficult it is to win without a bona fide superstar.

Tsai said in the interview that a good leadership quality is “being willing to admit mistakes.”

And Tsai, asked what aspects of leadership are important to him, said ‘you have to be willing to admit mistakes.’

“…You can’t always pretend to be the smartest person in the room,” he said. “Sometimes people look for that leadership.”

Tsai has certainly invested a lot of his money in the Nets, spending $323 million in luxury tax fines since he bought the team, and also covering debts from the construction of the Barclays Center, which he also owns.

Still, his admission that “it doesn’t matter if you’re competitive” to make money as a franchise will scare some Nets fans.

Brooklyn will search for a new permanent head coach this offseason after firing Jacque Vaughn in February.