With all eyes on Jason Kidd, Rod Thorn is another Nets legend entering the Basketball Hall of Fame on Friday.
Jason Kidd will garner most of the attention from Nets fans on Friday at the Basketball Hall of Fame enshrinement ceremony. But without general manager Rod Thorn, Jason Kidd may have never made his way to New Jersey to play for the team that later became the Brooklyn Nets.
Thorn was the man behind the curtain of it all and he was one of the key figures that built New Jersey’s NBA Finals-bound rosters. Thorn told Tom Dowd of BrooklynNets.com:
“It’s ironic to start out with that I would be going in at the same time as Jason. Obviously Jason was going to be a first ballot Hall of Famer with the career that he had, but also a guy I worked with at the NBA office, Rick Welts, is going in. Two-fold for me. I’m happy for myself, but I’m happy for those guys also.”
It’s fitting that Thorn’s induction coincides with Kidd’s. The trade Thorn made for Kidd in 2001 was the catalyst that spurred the Nets to two straight NBA Finals in 2002 and 2003.
Although the Nets couldn’t overcome the Lakers in 2002 or the Spurs in 2003, these were the two most successful seasons in the franchise’s NBA history. The franchise won two ABA championships prior to merging with the NBA, but they have yet to bring home a championship in the NBA.
Thorn’s contributions to the Nets and more widely, the game of basketball, make him a worthy recipient of the Hall of Fame induction.
