P.J. Carlesimo joins Michael Kay on "CenterStage"

Nets interim Head Coach P.J. Carlesimo had a sit-down with YES Network's Yankees play-by-play broadcaster Michael Kay on the YES series "CenterStage" and answered many questions about his situation with the Nets while also answering on other topics. The episode will be aired on Monday, March 18th at 10:30 pm, immediately after the Nets-Pistons postgame coverage.

Here is some of what Carlesimo had to say to Michael Kay:

On Avery Johnson's firing:

"When (Nets General Manager) Billy King called me, he said, "You know, we made a change this morning," which I didn't even know about at the time. And he said, "We want you to take over the team on an interim basis," and I said, "Bill," I said, "I gotta talk to Avery." I said, "I'll talk to Avery, and I'll get back to you." I went in, and I talked to Avery, and obviously he was still extremely disappointed, if not upset. And he said, "Hey, you know, that's the way it is in this league. You gotta do what you gotta do." So the decision was really, you know, stay as assistant coach and let somebody else take the job, or try and make the best of the situation. And, I decided to go that route (and take the job). But it really, it still doesn't sit, you know, as nicely as you would like it to be. Because the circumstances were never the way you want to get a job."

On Mikhail Prokhorov:

 "He doesn't pretend to understand all the (basketball) workings. Billy King's his general manager, and he values very much what Billy says, and I think he lets a coach coach. He makes it very clear to you he wants to win. To me, he's a perfect NBA owner; every owner in the league says they want to win a championship, but not a lot of them are willing to put the money out there, and he's already shown that he's willing to do that. Secondly, he's very serious about it; his line of questions was, if you ask about a certain player, Brook Lopez, for instance: "What's he like?" "Well, I really like him, he's a good big man," (to which) he says, "Can we win a championship with Brook Lopez at center?" "Yes." Next. And, he asked, "Strengths? Weaknesses? You like him? You don't like him?" But the last question is always, "Is he going to be a good piece on us winning a championship?"

On the Big East Conference:

 "I try not to think about it because I get either really sad or really angry. It's hard to understand exactly why. I mean, football drove that league even from the beginning, so many of the things we did were to keep the football schools there. That's why you had different teams coming in at different times. But for a league that has meant so much to those institutions, and so much to the fans, you know, on the East Coast, when it was the Big East, when everybody was in the East, and…everybody played each other twice; it's kind of sad to see it, as spectacular as it was and as good as it was for so many players and coaches and fans and schools, to see it dissolve."

On how he always planned to go into coaching:

"I knew I wanted to go into coaching. My father (Peter Carlesimo, long-time college basketball coach and administrator) didn't want any part of it. He wanted me to go to law school, and if Digger (Phelps, Fordham's head men's basketball coach in 1970-71) hadn't left, I probably would have gone to law school. Hal Wissel (1971-76 Fordham University head men's basketball coach) came in as the new coach, and I, for lack of a better term, I became a G.A (graduate assistant). I got, you know, $500 to be the golf coach and seventh assistant basketball coach."

Be sure to tune in tomorrow night to hear more from P.J. Carlesimo.

Source: YES Network

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