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New Jersey Nets executive Rod Thorn has signed a multi-year contract extension to serve as president of the team, it was announced today. As per team policy, terms of the agreement were not announced.

“ Rod Thorn is one of the most knowledgeable and respected basketball executives in the NBA, and we are fortunate to have him as president of the Nets for many years to come,” said Bruce Ratner, Nets principal owner. “ I have the utmost confidence that under Rod’s continued leadership, the Nets are in great hands heading into this season and the future.”

“ I am very appreciative of the confidence Bruce and the other owners have shown in our basketball management team,” said Thorn. “ And I assure you that all of us will work diligently in trying to perpetuate and enhance our franchise and our organization.”

Rod was named as the Nets president on June 2, 2000. He had spent the previous four decades serving in the NBA as a player, assistant coach, head coach, general manager and league official before being named as Nets’ team president and then tabbed as the team’s chief executive officer this past February.

As president and general manager of the Nets, Rod had the responsibility of managing the basketball side of the organization, including all team personnel and player-related issues. Rod put his firm stamp on the direction of the Nets oncourt fortunes when he engineered two major deals the final week in June of 2001. On June 27, 2001, Rod traded the Nets first pick in the 2001 NBA Draft (Eddie Griffin-7th overall) to the Houston Rockets for their three first round picks (Richard Jefferson-13, Jason Collins-18 and Brandon Armstrong-23).

One day later, on June 28, Rod negotiated a major six-player blockbuster trade with the Phoenix Suns that landed the Nets three-time First Team All-NBA guard Jason Kidd in exchange for Stephon Marbury. This deal was the first time in the Nets’ NBA history that the team had a First Team All-NBA performer on its roster, and sent a strong signal to the teams and fans of the NBA that Rod would be taking a very aggressive posture in transforming the Nets into a playoff-caliber team.

This transformation was rapid, as the team took the NBA by surprise in year two of Rod’s tenure as the head of the Nets’ basketball operations. The Nets achieved unprecedented success as a franchise during the 2001-02 campaign, establishing a new benchmark for wins (52), as well as copping the Atlantic Division title for the first time. The Nets posted the best regular season record in the Eastern Conference, earning the team home-court advantage for the 2002 NBA Playoffs. The Nets took full measure of that advantage, as they knocked off Indiana, Charlotte and Boston to win the Eastern Conference title for the first time in franchise history, advancing them to the NBA Finals. The Nets were subsequently ousted by the defending World Champion Los Angeles Lakers in four games, but Rod’s input into this magical season did not go unnoticed, as his peers voted him the 2001-02 NBA Executive of the Year.

Despite the unprecedented success of the previous campaign, Rod was very aggressive during the summer of 2002 as he tried to improve the Nets for the 2002-03 season and keep them at a championship level. In the major blockbuster trade of the offseason, the Nets acquired eight-time All-Star center Dikembe Mutombo from Philadelphia in exchange for forward Keith Van Horn and center Todd MacCulloch, and also signed free-agent forward Rodney Rogers. The Nets responded by compiling a 49-33 regular season mark, once again winning the Atlantic Division title, and then marched through the Eastern Conference Playoffs, eliminating Milwaukee, Boston and Detroit (sweeping both Boston and Detroit) before falling to the San Antonio Spurs in six games in the NBA Finals.

Although they had just made their second consecutive trip to the NBA Finals, the Nets offseason was again anything but tranquil, as Rod solidified the immediate future of the team by re-signing All-Star Jason Kidd to a long- term contract.

This past season, the Nets won their third straight Atlantic Division title and fell to the subsequent World Champion Detroit Pistons in seven games in the Eastern Conference Semi-Finals. This three-year stretch under Rod’s stewardship, which included three Atlantic Division titles, two Eastern Conference championships and two trips to the NBA Finals, was unparalleled in Nets history and transformed the image of the team throughout the NBA.

Before taking on his current role with the Nets, Rod spent 14 years working for the NBA’s league office in Manhattan, where he was the NBA’s Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations. At the NBA office, Rod oversaw all on-court operations, including officiating, game conduct and discipline. He has also served as chair of the Senior Men’s Basketball Committee for USA Basketball (1992-2000), the committee responsible for selecting players and coaches for the Olympics and the World Championship of Basketball

Rod first entered the league in 1963, drafted by the Baltimore Bullets as the second overall pick in that year’s NBA Draft. After playing one season in Baltimore, Rod spent a year and a half in both Detroit and St. Louis before finishing his career in Seattle with the Sonics. While in Seattle, Rod enjoyed the best season of his career in 1967-68, averaging 15.2 ppg and 3.5 apg. He finished with career averages of 10.8 ppg and 2.6 apg.

An All-American guard at West Virginia, Rod followed in the collegiate footsteps of such NBA stars as Jerry West and Rod Hundley. At the conclusion of his playing career, he became an assistant to Seattle coach Lenny Wilkens in 1971.