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March 28, 2010
The Oligarch File: Mikhail Prokhorov Talks to '60 Minutes'
The Star-Ledger
by Dave D'Alessandro
Why is it the sports reporters always seem to be the ones to see through the nonsense?
So when it comes to NBA ownership, it’s all about stacks of money – and a willingness to flaunt them – so that is what the CBS program made the emphasis of its 14-minute segment.
We saw Mikky at his opulent home. We saw Mikky’s Maybach. We saw a model of his $45 million yacht (where is it docked? He didn’t know) and his guns and his workout room and his, uh, food.
We get it: He’s rich, and comfortable with it.
But there was very little substance about where he came from, which is an important part of his remarkable life and success. You can’t know someone unless you know specifically what they’ve been through in life – those forces that shaped the motives and the spirit of the person involved.
The show’s producers didn’t even try.
...But at least they got him to sit down for a while, as uncomfortable as he seemed in closeup.
And that isn’t to suggest that the piece didn’t have some interesting moments. During the segment that depicted all the Russian businessmen getting rubbed out by the mob or competitors in the 90s, Prokhorov came up with a Western metaphor that didn’t sound as rehearsed as the others he used: “It was Wild West,” he said. “It was a territory with no sheriff. No rules. You need to survive.”
In other segments, he came across as very disingenuous.
Posted by eric at March 28, 2010 11:07 PM