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July 15, 2010
Villain-off: Prokhorov, Dolan and the end of a basketball monopoly
Capital New York
by Josh Curtis
Two weeks ago, while the Knicks were waiting with clammy hands for The Decision, the Nets unveiled a mammoth, 225’ X 95’ billboard depicting none other than Prokhorov himself standing alongside Nets minority owner and New York hip-hop legend Jay-Z. Above their heads read, “The blueprint for greatness.” But this was different from billboards past. It wasn’t commissioned to preside over a Holiday Inn on some gray New Jersey highway in the middle of nowhere. Instead, it was tacked up at the corner of 34th Street and Eighth Avenue, a stone’s throw from Madison Square Garden. Nets CEO Brett Yormark has said that the location was a coincidence. It wasn’t. It was a gauntlet thrown down in earnest by a man who has every intention of making good on his threat to dethrone the Knicks.
...Of course, it’s no secret that the Knicks have been bad for a while. But few seem to appreciate just how bad. Amazingly, the Knicks have now endured more consecutive losing seasons than any major New York-area sports franchise in the last 50 years. More than the Jets. More than the Mets. More than the Nets. More than the Islanders. More than everyone. Nine in a row. A decade has been flushed down the toilet. This is epic stuff.
And what the Knicks have begun to learn this off-season—and will doubtless continue to learn—is that being so bad for so long isn’t just depressing; it’s dangerous. It costs you players, yes, but more importantly, as Prokhorov knows, it costs you fans.
...If that erosion isn’t yet obvious in the case of the Knicks, it’s because, unlike the Jets—and every other major New York sports franchise—the Knicks haven’t had in-state competition since 1977. For almost 33 years, they have enjoyed a virtual monopoly on the sporting affections of New York City in a way that no other New York team has. But that will end as soon as 2012, when the Nets plan to set up shop in the city’s most populous borough—and when the value of the Knicks’ brand may be at or near its all-time nadir.
By that time, Prokhorov expects to be riding high. "If everything goes as planned, I expect to be in the playoffs next season . . .and championship in one year minimum and maximum in five years,” he told Nets season-ticket holders in May.
Maybe there’s no need to worry. Maybe he's exactly as crazy as he seems.
Jim Dolan had better hope so.
NoLandGrab: If everything goes as planned? That must be Plan C, since the Nets didn't land the top pick in the draft, nor any free agent of note, a showing on that front even worse than the Knicks'.
The Nets are the only sports team we know of that has had to resort to putting its owner (and his celebrity-fractional-owner sidekick) on a billboard for want of a marketable star.
Photo: Marianne O'Leary via flickr
Posted by eric at July 15, 2010 9:11 AM