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October 23, 2009
Nets Sale On Agenda Of N.B.A. Owners
The New York Times
by Howard Beck
The proposed sale of a controlling stake in the Nets to a Russian billionaire will be put to a vote of N.B.A. owners by the end of the year, according to Commissioner David Stern, who spoke positively Thursday about the deal.
...Prokhorov met with a subcommittee of owners Wednesday, during the league’s board of governors meeting in Midtown Manhattan. Stern described it as a “robust and lively discussion” that focused on Prokhorov’s rise from stevedore to blue-jeans salesman to banker to metals investor to billionaire.
It was Prokhorov’s first face-to-face meeting with his prospective future partners.
...Stern made the deal sound almost like a given when he said, “We’re looking forward to the completion of that transaction.”
Although the league’s background check is continuing, “we haven’t surfaced anything that would cause us to have a negative opinion of him,” Stern said. “But we’re not finished.”
NoLandGrab: Unless the vetting turns up evidence of drug-running or war crimes (and we doubt they're looking all that hard), you can bet that the NBA will be thrilled to swap Bruce Ratner for Proko.
Posted by eric at October 23, 2009 11:01 AM