According to Billy King, the general manager of the Brooklyn Nets, it was he (and not head coach Jason Kidd) who made the decision to remove assistant coach Lawrence Frank from the team’s bench. Frank was inked to a four-year, $5.3 million contract, and continues to file daily reports “from afar”. Per the Star-Ledger:

“In order for [Jason] to be successful, I had to make a decision, so I said, ‘Let’s reassign him,’ ” King said during an interview with NBA TV. “He does his report — I got it this morning — and he’s helping from afar. But I believe in Jason and so to give him the ability to be successful, we had to make that decision.”

“[Kidd] believed in himself,” King said. “And that was the biggest thing. When he walked into a room, there was confidence. When he talked to the players, there was confidence,” King said. “He went at KG [Kevin Garnett]. KG went back at him. He went at Paul [Pierce]. So he wasn’t afraid to challenge guys, and that, to me, showed that he was going to be a good coach.

“You’ve got a Hall of Famer in KG and Paul — 19 years and 16 years in the league — and you challenge them in front of the rest of the team, they all believe, ‘Okay, this guy’s real.’ “

King also discussed his initial decision to hire Kidd, who was just weeks removed from his retirement as a player.

“One thing I knew, I wanted a leader,” King said. “Most people look for guys [who can draw] X’s and O’s. That’s great, but if you can’t lead, then X’s and O’s don’t work.

“And ownership said, ‘What about Jason Kidd?’ And I said, ‘Nah, he just finished playing. We can’t hire him.’ They said, ‘Will you meet with him?’ I said, ‘Yeah, I’ll meet with him.’ So I’d known Jason. I liked him. I did know he was a leader and he’d won everywhere. So we had our first meeting and I walked away from our first meeting and called [ownership] and said, ‘He might be the one. We’re going to meet again.’ I just walked away uplifted.”