The Brooklyn Nets majority owner, Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, recently announced his plans to move his businesses to his native county…including the basketball club.
“A Russian company will own the basketball club,” Prokhorov said Monday, according to the Reuters news agency. “This (move) does not violate any NBA rules and I will bring it (under Russian jurisdiction) in accordance with Russian law.”
NBA league officials say they haven’t received any application to move the team and based on their information the team is owned by Prokhorov through an American-based company.
“The Nets are owned by Mikhail Prokhorov through a U.S.-based company,” said league spokesman Mike Bass. “We have received no application nor is there a process underway through our office to transfer the ownership of the Nets to another company.”
Hmmmm, slick move by Mikhail. I wonder if this was his plan all along.
Despite the NBA’s push for globalization, I’m sure this is not how they planned on achieving it. I expect the league to veto any attempt by Prokhorov to operated the team under Russian law.
