Levy out as Nets CEO after less than two months on the job
SALT LAKE CITY — Well, that didn’t take long. Less than two months after the Nets hired former Turner Broadcasting president David Levy, now he’s already their ex-CEO.
The Nets and Levy mutually parted ways, with the team making a surprising announcement on Tuesday.
“David Levy is a respected media executive and a friend,” Nets owner Joe Tsai tweeted. “Truly appreciate his efforts in the past few months. I wish him well in his next endeavors.”
Levy was hired Sept. 16 to replace Brett Yormark when Tsai bought the team and the arena from Mikhail Prokhorov. Now he’s already been replaced as interim CEO of both the Nets and Barclays Center by Oliver Weisberg.
Weisberg had been viewed as a candidate for the job as soon as Tsai took over. He’s not only CEO of J Tsai Sports and NBA alternate governor of the Nets, but also managing partner of Blue Pool Capital, Tsai’s Hong Kong-based investment firm. Essentially he’s long been one of Tsai’s most trusted right-hand men.
Now he’ll take over as Nets CEO, meaning he’ll run all business, revenue, strategy and operations for both the team and the building.
“I want to thank David for his collaboration over the past several months and wish him well in his future endeavors,” Weisberg said in a statement. “As we enter an exciting next chapter of our organization, it’s important that ownership and management are completely aligned on our go forward plan.
“We are proud of the culture of the Brooklyn Nets under the leadership of general manager Sean Marks and head coach Kenny Atkinson, and we look forward to continue bringing the best experience to our fans.”
The statement implies Levy wasn’t aligned with ownership and management, which is odd considering he had already been on a Nets board.
“We found David Levy, who joined us as CEO, a terrific guy and someone who’s got tons of experience and lots of expertise and familiarity with the league. For him to run the business side of things is tremendous for us,” Tsai told The Post last month. “The good thing
about having David in place is he’s very creative, very entrepreneurial.”
But apparently not the right mix, a source telling The Post “after a while it just became apparent it wasn’t the right fit. That was pretty much it.”
The move comes as a shock considering Levy had been made a venture partner in Blue Pool, and even been spotted sitting courtside with Tsai’s wife, Clara, and the family’s children.
But on Oct. 30, Levy had made some telling comments at a Bloomberg event called “Sooner Than You
Think.” In a segment titled, “What’s Next for the Brooklyn Nets,” he touched on the storm he’d stepped into.
“What I didn’t know when I took this job, I didn’t know that my job description I was going to have to become an expert in U.S.-China relations,” Levy said, referring to the incident touched off by Rockets GM Daryl Morey’s tweet backing the Hong Kong protestors.
Tsai co-founded Alibaba, which designed the application used by China’s communist party. His open letter detailing why mainland China was vexed prompted demonstrators to attend a Nets game jeering him and wearing pro-Hong Kong shirts.
When asked whether teams should be a proxy for U.S. values or be free from the burden of that responsibility, Levy’s answer was telling.
“Whatever corporation you’re in or country you live in, you should remain loyal to the values you have. Period,” Levy said.
A Nets source said Levy’s departure was not based solely on his comments from that event, but on a number of factors.