Former Boston Celtics stars Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Jason Terry made their debuts Thursday as members of the Brooklyn Nets and already began talking about winning an NBA title.
"We've got all the ingredients we need to win a championship," Pierce said.
"We just need to figure out how to make it all come together. Great players always figure it out and I think we will."
Russian billionaire and Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov, new Nets coach Jason Kidd and team general manager Billy King joined the star trio at a news conference where the Nets made dethroning the two-time defending champion Miami Heat their clear mission.
"The big picture is the championship trophy and hopefully we can win that. The gold trophy is what we're here for," Kidd said.
Pierce was the 2008 NBA Finals Most Valuable Player and Garnett dominated inside as the Celtics beat the Los Angeles Lakers for the title five years ago while Terry helped Dallas beat Miami in the 2011 finals before joining the Celtics last year.
"We're about winning a championship and coming to the Nets gives us the best opportunity," Garnett said.
They join a Nets squad that went 49-33 last season, losing to Chicago in the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs.
With guard Deron Williams, forward Joe Johnson and center Brook Lopez likely joined by Garnett, 37, and Pierce, 35, in the starting lineup and Terry coming off the bench along with 32-year-old Russian forward Andrei Kirilenko, another newcomer to the Nets, Brooklyn promises to be a formidable outfit.
Prokhorov will spend $101 million in salary next season and another $82 million in NBA luxury tax penalties for exceeding the league salary cap.
But he assembled an all-star starting lineup of Williams ($18.4 million), Johnson ($21.4 million), Pierce ($15.3 million), Garnett ($12.4 million) and Lopez ($14.6 million).
"You've got to look at what everybody brings," Pierce said. "We all complement each other. We understand sacrifice."
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