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Celtics minority owner Stephen Pagliuca was nearly the controlling owner of the Nets, a seismic move that could’ve impacted both Brooklyn and Boston. Pagliuca — born in New York and raised in New Jersey — almost teamed up with Joe Tsai to buy the Nets from Russian oligarch Mikhail Prokhorov in 2017. “I was honored to be contacted by the Nets in 2017 to look at the club,” Pagliuca told The Post on Tuesday, “but decided after a review that my heart was with the Celtics and subsequently invested more capital in the Celtics franchise and also in the Italian Serie A soccer team Atalanta.”
A few weeks ago, the Board of Governors approved a rule change that allows sovereign wealth funds to buy stakes in teams in addition to other institutional funds, such as endowments and pension funds, a change first reported by Sportico and confirmed by ESPN. This opens a door for something not seen in American sports: an arm of a foreign government buying into a league. Such investments are not permitted in other major U.S. leagues -- at least not yet. Under the just-adopted policy, a foreign fund could buy up to 20% of a team and purchase stakes in up to five teams. Any such transaction would be subject to significant vetting, league sources said. Such a situation calls to mind the nine-month approval process the NBA put former Brooklyn Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov through before he became the first foreign controlling owner in 2009.
Morant’s salary is a fraction of what he deserves, which is bad for him and, in the harsh reality of the competitive NBA, magical for his team. To contend for the NBA title, you typically need to win north of 50 games. The Warriors’ math is that if Curry generates 15 wins, then there’s some tap dancing—and cap dancing—to figure out how to afford the other 35-40. After paying Steph, the Warriors had only $67 million left to spend under the salary cap. That would only buy 20 more wins at league-average prices, and who wants to win a measly 35 games? So to leap back into title contention, the Warriors shattered the salary cap and set all-time spending records. Over the broad sweep of NBA history, we see the occasional Joe Lacob, James Dolan, Mikhail Prokhorov, or Paul Allen—billionaires determined to build dynasties with gold bricks. It usually doesn’t work. Even when it does, the league stacks on such punitive luxury-tax bills that everyone eventually loses their appetite for overspending.
Former Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov receives Israeli citizenship
Jewish Russian billionaire and former owner of NBA team the Brooklyn Nets, Mikhail Prokhorov, has made Aliyah and became an Israeli citizen, Ynet has learned on Monday. The 56-year-old businessman arrived in Israel several days ago on a private jet from Switzerland and has since filed all the required paperwork to become a citizen of the Jewish state.
Prokhorov has also had a short stint in politics, having run for the presidency in the March 2012 election against Putin but garnered only 8% of the vote. Prokhorov's relations with Putin soured after the launch of his presidential bid despite qualifying he did not oppose the Russian leader but only offered himself as an alternative.
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Nets Daily: Former Kremlin economist Andrei Dvorkovich, a friend of Mikhail Prokhorov and Duke grad, called traitor, forced out of office after criticizing Russian invasion of Ukraine. motherjones.com/politics/2022/…
Mikhail Prokhorov sold Nets under pressure from Vladimir Putin
When Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov sold the Brooklyn Nets more than two years ago, he gave up ownership of the NBA franchise partly because of pressure from Vladimir Putin, The Post has learned. Events that led Prokhorov’s 2019 sale of the Nets and Barclays Center to Chinese billionaire Joe Tsai stretch back five years earlier, according to sources close to the situation. At the time, the US and European Union had begun to apply sanctions on Russia for taking over Crimea.
But as tensions between the US and Russia over Crimea grew, Putin in 2016 also began pressuring Prokhorov to sell the Nets, according to sources. That’s because Putin, especially during times of political turmoil, will test the loyalty of oligarchs with assets in the West to show they won’t get too close to the US or Europe, according to one source close to the situation.
“Putin strongly suggested he sell the Nets,” the source said. And if Prokhorov refused, he risked losing his considerable assets in Russia. “You couldn’t be pro-Russian and own an NBA team,” another source who knows Prokhorov said.
A week earlier, just after 11 a.m. on July 1, the Nets arrived at the IMG building in downtown Cleveland as the first of six teams to meet with James. Out of one side of a Lincoln Town Car emerged Mikhail Prokhorov, the billionaire Russian oligarch who had bought the Nets less than two months prior. Out of the other side emerged Jay-Z. "It was a circus show," said Avery Johnson, who had been hired to coach the team. "We were very excited. But in all honesty, we weren't ready as an organization. And we were playing in Newark for the next two years -- not New York. But Jay-Z really gave a great pitch. He appealed to their friendship and sold New York."
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After the Warriors, the NBA team that increased in value the most is the Brooklyn Nets, which have been sold twice in the past decade, first to Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, who bought in 2010 and then moved the team from New Jersey to the $1 billion Barclays Center in 2012; more recently, billionaire Joseph Tsai bought the team and its arena for $3.3 billion. The team’s value has jumped 773% in the past decade, the third best of any team in the world.
What’s your next move? Brett Yormark: I’m not going to announce it yet. I knew there was going to be an end to one chapter and the beginning of another. Ownership effectively told me last spring that (selling the majority share to Joe Tsai) was something they were contemplating. I extended my deal through December to provide oversight of the transaction. There was always a plan to leave with ownership. I’ve become very close to Mikhail Prokhorov and (board chairman) Dmitry Razumov. It would have been very tough for me to leave the company, knowing that ownership was going to stay on board. My goal is to announce where I’m heading in mid-September, assuming everything works out. I’m going to stay in sports and entertainment and look forward to build something and create value. It’s no different than what I did at NASCAR and BSE.
Albert Nahmad: It’s a fun but difficult exercise to try to figure what Mikhail Prokhorov profited from his investment in the Nets and Barclay’s Center. I spent a few minutes on it, and here’s what I’ve been able to come up with:
It’s a fun but difficult exercise to try to figure what Mikhail Prokhorov profited from his investment in the Nets and Barclay’s Center. I spent a few minutes on it, and here’s what I’ve been able to come up with: pic.twitter.com/de6mvKt8Ry
— Albert Nahmad (@AlbertNahmad) August 16, 2019
Prokhorov’s record as an NBA owner: 300-504. What Prokhorov will sell the team for, after acquiring it for $223 million, plus the team’s debt, in 2009: $2.35 billion. Said a longtime Nets official, “He went for it, tried to win a championship and left.” Prokhorov was a good NBA owner, at least by some measurements. “Part of his legacy,” says former Nets executive Bobby Marks, “is that he saved the Nets.” Indeed, Prokhorov took control of the Nets during a U.S. recession. The Barclays Center project—mired in expensive legal battles that ex-owner Bruce Ratner was struggling to afford—was on the brink of collapse. Enter Prokhorov, whose infusion of cash helped salvage the project.
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