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May 3, 2010
It's Prokhorov to the Rescue!
Russian Billionaire Who's Buying the NBA's Nets Has Worked Magic Before; a Broken Biathlon Team
The Wall Street Journal
by Reed Albergotti
Russian billionaire oligarch Mikhail Prokhorov helped resurrect the country's woeful biathlon team. Can he turn around the Nets?
At the moment, the Nets are barely better off than the Russian biathlon team 19 months ago. The Nets almost had the worst record in NBA history. They haven't had a winning record since 2006 and has the NBA's worst attendance numbers. The team has been hemorrhaging anywhere from $20 million to $30 million a year, according to the team's current owner, Bruce Ratner, who, after a seven-year fight has both the funding and the necessary approvals in place to build a more profitable arena in Brooklyn.
Mr. Ratner says some of the team's woes on the court were intentional—the Nets unloaded some talent to create salary room for an unusually star-studded free-agent market that includes marquee players like LeBron James and Dwyane Wade. What the Nets do in free agency will determine, to a great extent, their success in the NBA.
When the NBA was vetting Mr. Prokhorov last fall, a person familiar with the discussions said one big question was whether he could put together a winning team in the NBA while operating under the league's salary controls. When he built CSKA Moscow, he primarily used his fortune to sign better talent than the competition.
Mr. Kushchenko thinks Mr. Prokhorov will be successful in New Jersey, despite his inability to buy any players he wants. "It's a big mistake to think that Mikhail Prokhorov spends unlimited money," said Mr. Kushchenko.
He adds that Mr. Prokhorov's greatest skill is improving everything around the field of play, while letting coaches and general managers figure out what to do with athletes. "Money is a tool to create thoughtful, professional staff," he says. "His style is to invite the best professionals from this or that field, and create a sophisticated, detailed system, use modern technologies and be sure to bring the project to a positive result."
Nets fans, wherever they may be hiding, had better hope so.
Posted by eric at May 3, 2010 11:22 PM