Dear New Jersey Nets
via The New York Times:
A Russian tycoon with a longstanding passion for basketball agreed to a $200 million deal on Wednesday that would make him the principal owner of the New Jersey Nets and a key investor in the team’s proposed new home in Brooklyn.
Mikhail D. Prokhorov, who is 44 years old, stands as tall as a basketball forward and is widely considered the richest man in Russia, would become the first overseas owner of a National Basketball Association team. While other Russian billionaires have become prominent in English soccer, Mr. Prokhorov now becomes the first of that group to cross the Atlantic with the aim of becoming part of the American sports scene.
Mr. Prokhorov’s deal also stands out because there is little foreign ownership of any kind in major American sports. Last May, Chinese investors reached a deal to purchase 15 percent of the N.B.A.’s Cleveland Cavaliers. And the majority owners of Major League Baseball’s Seattle Mariners are Hiroshi Yamauchi, a former executive of Nintendo, the Japanese video-game company, and Nintendo USA, the company’s American subsidiary.
Move over Jay-Z. Brooklyn is getting a taste of that Soviet swagg, now. The question is, is this good for the NBA? Let's take a look at some precedents. In The English Premier League (soccer, for you uncultured ingrates), another Russian tycoon Roman Abramovich drew the same ire after purchasing the controlling stake in the Chelsea Football Club for $233 million. The catch? Within two years after the takeover they had won the Premier League, League Cup and FA Cup twice. They went from perennial runner-up to being THAT team in England. Of course they drew a lot of flack for basically turning into an 'evil' empire-esque club, but theystill got those championships.
That said, Nets, this could be a big move for you guys. In recent years your company, not just the team has been going through some financial hardship. Plus, it's not like you guys have been making deep playoff runs in the past few years. You've got my favorite point guard (Devin Harris) on a team full of scrubs, with the exception of Brook 'Shaq' Lopez. Any dead presidents coming into the franchise would automatically put some rocket fuel into a team that's been languishing. In terms of the whole 'foreigner owning an American team' issue, what really is the issue? We as Americans are completely fine with economic imperialism, so why can't more than one country play at that game? Prokhorov isn't some blind billionaire just looking for a new toy. Dude actually plays basketball and has invested a lot of money into basketball in Russia. Honestly, this is a win-win move for you guys and the NBA. We're always talking about how we wat basketball to be a global game. Well, here's our first taste of that. I wonder what Prokhorov thinks of the Blueprint 3...