Nets sign IU grad Frank to 4-year contract extension

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- New Jersey Nets coach Lawrence Frank has signed a four-year, $10 million contract extension.\nThe deal was announced by the team Thursday, about 12 hours after the worst opening-night loss in Nets' history, 100-77 to Shaquille O'Neal and the Miami Heat.\nFrank, the former IU basketball manager under former Hoosier coach Bob Knight, took over the Nets in midseason last year after Byron Scott was fired. Frank promptly won a record 13 straight games. He signed the extension Wednesday and negotiated it himself with help from advisers.\n"I feel very comfortable with Lawrence as the coach," Nets president Rod Thorn said. "Lawrence will coach our team as well as it can be coached, I don't have any problems with that."\nFrank began his coaching career with 13 straight wins, a record start for a coach of a major professional team in North America. He posted a 25-15 record in leading the Nets to the Eastern Conference semifinals, where they lost a seven-game series to the eventual NBA champion Detroit Pistons.\nFrank faces a major challenge in guiding a team that was dismantled in the offseason. Kenyon Martin was traded to Denver in a salary-cap move. Kerry Kittles was shipped to the Clippers and Jason Kidd is starting the season on the injured list, recovering from knee surgery in July.\n"Although some of the names on the backs of the jerseys have changed in recent months, the front still says 'Nets' and we will continue to give the fans the only style we know how to play, the unselfish, teammate-first brand of basketball that characterizes the New Jersey Nets," Frank said.\nFrank admitted he was happy with what he saw on opening night, with the exception of the second quarter.\n"You can search for reasons and I take responsibility, but we just played out of character. We didn't have much of a presence out there," he said.