For weeks before the ax fell on Brooklyn Nets general manager Billy King and coach Lionel Hollins there had been positioning and posturing going on behind the scenes as replacement scenarios lined up.
Quietly, members of owner Mikhail Prokhorov's inner circle have reached out to possible general manager candidates gauging their interested and seeking insight on how the Nets might ply themselves out of a brutal situation they find themselves in, sources told ESPN.com.
Meanwhile, on a completely separate track, Kentucky coach John Calipari's emissaries have been putting out the word that if he were going to ever leave Lexington that it would take certain historic conditions, sources said.