OT: Russian Billionaire Approved to Buy N.J. Nets

Submitted by Bromigo on

The NBA approved Mikhail Prokhorov's $200 million bid for the New Jersey Nets, which will give the Russian billionaire an 80 percent stake in the team and 45 percent ownership of the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, where the Nets plan on moving to in 2012.

He has deep pockets at $17B and the Nets are $26M below the salary cap in a strong free agent year, could be interesting to watch play out.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-05-11/prokhorov-s-200-million-nets-buy-gains-nba-approval-update1-.html

jerseyblue

May 12th, 2010 at 3:31 PM ^

Them going to Brooklyn doesn't  make sense. Brooklyn will always belong to the Knicks. Plus the move is just wrong in principal. They want to kick those poor people out of their apartments to build that arena. I hope they win their fight and force the nets to go somewhere else.

TrppWlbrnID

May 12th, 2010 at 4:25 PM ^

historically, poor people always have had success against billionaires, particularly russian ones.  they are also pretty tough against sports arenas and gigantic commercial interests.

/sarcasm

jmblue

May 12th, 2010 at 4:32 PM ^

The franchise was originally the New York Nets, and it had a significant following in NYC in its ABA days.  Because of a 1970s NBA rule that two teams couldn't have the same geographical name, they had to become the New Jersey Nets when the two leagues merged.  (The NBA promptly waived that rule a decade later when the Clippers moved to L.A.) Calling them the Brooklyn Nets is an attempt to recapture that early fan momentum the franchise once had.  It'll be interesting to see if it works out.  If nothing else, Brooklyn residents should be happy to see their borough get more publicity.

Michiganguy19

May 12th, 2010 at 3:42 PM ^

Is that in the 60 Minute special he showed himself draped by beautiful women and having everything a man could ever dream of (literally). Yet his teeth were as yellow (maybe even worse) than Tom Jackson's. Good thing he gets those 15K suits tailored, dear god those teeth looked bad... all european (british) jokes aside, theylooked awful, he needs someone to give him the heads up.

Maybe send him one of those anonymous emails, since I doubt he reads this blog.

Noahdb

May 12th, 2010 at 4:46 PM ^

"Is that in the 60 Minute special he showed himself draped by beautiful women and having everything a man could ever dream of (literally). Yet his teeth were as yellow (maybe even worse) than Tom Jackson's."

Pearly whites are sort of an American thing, aren't they?

The typical stereotype of British people is that they have "bad teeth." Except they don't. They have THE lowest rate of tooth decay in the world...American's far, far, far outpace them with cavities. British people just don't put the same emphasis on having perfectly white teeth.

Perhaps the Russian billionaire falls into that same category. Or, yeah, maybe he's a heavy smoker.

Noahdb

May 12th, 2010 at 4:49 PM ^

The linked Business Week article mentioned that he's currently heavily invested in debt-restructuring and hybrid cars. I'm a business-retard...."debt restructuring" -- that's junk bonds?

He's talking about the EU countries current fiscal problems and he's talking about buying up the high-yield bonds that Spain and Greece will have to issue?

Noahdb

May 12th, 2010 at 5:03 PM ^

F. Mercury might have had the worst teeth in the history of dentistry. George Washington's wooden teeth would have been preferred.

Talk about being able to eat an apple through a picket fence...