PSG and Brooklyn Nets, two rich men with similar vices

The Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) and the Brooklyn Nets They are like sticker albums. They bought them with enthusiasm, put them together and, when the season was over, they went to the attic so that no one would remember them. The following year, the same. more money, more stickers and another album in the pile. They play a different sport but with the same rules, wasting fees every season, especially in the last decade -when they changed hands-, to collect a stunning array of names.

But so much wealth never brought them the desired jewel that they had not yet acquired, the Champions for the Parisian team, the ring of NBA for the New York franchise. A first point that is common to many that there are two organizations that have the same way of looking at life and have reasonable similarities, also in their vices.

1. Two galactic groups and controversial trident

The PSG and Nets rosters command at first glance an abundance of respect and admiration as they are led by a dazzling triumvirate of stars, some of the best in the world. The economic prosperity in which they swim allows them to: Leo Messi, Kylian Mbappé and Neymar Jr. at PSG and Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and Ben Simmons at Brooklyn. Trio that also maintains their similarities.

Until recently we were not talking about tridents but about a ‘Big Two’ which, oddly enough, was formed in the same summer. In 2017 they arrived in Paris Mbappé in exchange for 180 million in Monaco and Neymar after the payment of 222 million euro to Barça making him the most expensive signing in football history. For their part, the Nets are done with Irving and Durant, both free agents, both summer, in this case 2019. Last year, the two teams added a new member to the duo to form a trio: PSG took over Messi after Barça and the Nets failed to renew in Harden after the trade with the Rockets.

The difference is that the Nets triumvirate replaced one of its members in February, when ‘Babas’ left for the Sixers and arrived. Simmons. However, two teams managed to convince the stars who wanted to leave to stay: PSG stays Mbappe with Real Madrid on tour and the New York franchise with Durant after the forward was asked this summer to transfer.

In another striking similarity, two of the components of each ‘Big Three’ were involved polemics Just recently. Mbappé has been criticized for some attitudes such as his laugh at a journalist’s question about whether PSG is not thinking of making short trips by train and not by plane so that there is less pollution and Neymar has always been criticized for his lack of professionalism for some night habits. With the Nets, Irving was criticized for missing half the season last year because he refused to get vaccinated and Simmons for refusing to work out with the Sixers before being traded.

Those who have not been affected by the controversies, if it happened to them in time, are the two ‘veterans’ of each trident: Messi (35 years old) and Durant (34).

2. Unscrupulous millionaire owners

PSG and Nets both have two ‘benevolent’ owners who are as rich and powerful as they are suspected of not respecting human rights. The owner of the Parisian club, Nasser Al-Khelaifi, He is the president of Qatar Sports Investment, an investment fund owned by the Al-Thani, the ruling family of Qatar, an irreverent country. human rights such as sexual freedom. In addition, Al-Khelaïfi has been accused in recent days of extorting and kidnapping a businessman who had compromising information about him regarding corruption so that Qatar could obtain Soccer World Cup.

Taiwanese businessman Joe Tsai, co-founder and vice president of Alibaba, a Chinese multinational e-commerce company, is the boss of the Nets. Aligned with the ideology of the government of China, Tsai has always defended the policies of a country also known for its lack of respect for human rights and has never shown empathy for the independence movement of Hong Kong. In addition, he is accused through his company – which is said to be related to two artificial intelligence companies – of contributing to the population control carried out by the Chinese government.

Tsai bought the franchise in 2019 in exchange for 3.5 billion dollar, who succeeded the former owner, the Russian oligarch Mikhail Prokhorov, owner of the Nets since 2010. Linked to Putin -the US leader forced him to sell the organization because having an American team was incompatible with being pro-Russian-, Prokhorov became the first non-American owner of an NBA franchise and even admitted the ‘corrupt’ source of your money. There was a time when both entities were obsessively pursuing their goal for a decade, PSG since 2011 with the arrival of Al-Khelaïfi and the Nets from 2010 with the Russian oligarch.

3. Dismal failure last season

PSG and Nets are excited about this new season but the pressure surrounding them is greater considering their major disappointments last season, both being eliminated in initial qualifications. The French team was knocked out in the round of 16 against Real Madrid (1-0 and 3-1) after squandering their lead with two goals in the last five minutes in Santiago Bernabeu and even worse is the New Yorker, overwhelmed in the series against the Celtics (4-0).

I know it’s a coincidence that the two said goodbye against the most successful team, Real Madrid in the Champions League -14 titles-and the Celtics in the NBA along with the Lakers with 17 wounds. Both rivals also reached the final, although the whites took the title against Liverpool unlike Boston vs. Warriors.

4. Spending sprees and economic sanctions

The spending by PSG and Nets has been brutal, as is the finances allowed by the bodies governing their competitions. The French club was fined €65 million by UEFA in September for not respecting financial ‘Fair Play’ and the New Yorker has to pay $97 million last year as a luxury rate for exceeding the salary mass limit.

Although salaries are more obscure in football, the newspaper L’Équipe revealed that PSG are spending €630 million a year in salary, while the Nets will invest in this course 192 million dollars, the third franchise in the NBA only after the Warriors and Clippers. And one €1.1 billion PSG has spent the last decade signing, an aspect that is harder to define in Brooklyn, because the NBA market works differently and the exchange of players and draft picks carries more weight than money.

5. Low tradition compared to others

PSG and the Brooklyn Nets have their history. They came into the world almost at the same time, because the French club was born 1970 and the American in 1967. But its tradition is few compared to other large entities, given its life, its track record and its sporadic presence in the advanced rounds of competition. PSG, who won the European Cup Winners’ Cup in 1997, have only played in one Champions League final, which they lost in 2020 against Bayernand only the Nets two NBA finals: In 2002 they fell against the Lakers and in 2003 against the Spurs.

In addition, Brooklyn must live with the greatest fame and prestige of New York Knicks, despite its endless crisis, and settled for the label of being the ‘other’ New York franchise. The Knicks, apart from being founded 20 years earlier (1946), have the 1970 and 1973 rings in addition to four lost Finals. It also has more history and tradition than is iconic Madison Square Gardenwhich was built in 1968, that the Barclay’s Centerfunded by Prokhorov and inaugurated in 2012, not forgetting that the Nets had little roots in the city when they returned here in 2012 after 35 years in New Jersey.

Due to its change of ownership at the beginning of the last decade, PSG has played only two semifinals -2020 and 2021-, while the Nets have not gone beyond conference semifinals or second round. The parade of notable players in both teams – some of whom are on the way down – is striking and numerous. beckham, Ibrahimovic, Cavani, Pastore, Di María or David Luiz at PSG, while the Nets, with more than one wrong bet on players more in the past than in the present, were able to put together Kevin GarnettPaul Pierce Deron Williams, Joe Johnson and Brook Lopez in 2013. For now, the harsh reality for PSG and the Nets is that they still stick to the cliché: money doesn’t buy happiness.