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NBA - Sports Rumors

Mon Oct 19, 2009 8:09 am EDT

Russian buyer of Nets facing more "invasive" background check than others

By Mark Miller

Mikhail D. Prokhorov wants to give Bruce Ratner $200 million so he can take the controlling interest of the New Jersey Nets and have a 45 percent stake in the team's proposed arena in Brooklyn, New York, that local residents are still fighting tooth and nail. You can be sure Bruce Ratner would love this deal to go through so the whole mess is mostly out of his hands.

So Ratner is one ownership vote that the richest man in Russia can count on when team owners meet to say yes or no on the deal. Before then, though, Prokhorov has to go through an extremely thorough background check that NBA Commissioner David Stern says some people classify as "invasive," but he wouldn't, according to the New York Times.

The word is that Prokhorov's background check will be slightly more detailed than the usual ownership transaction since he will be the first non-North American to take controlling interest in any team of the NFL, Major League Baseball, and NBA since Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi took over the Seattle Mariners in 1992.

Prokhorov begins his attempt to woo NBA owners when he meets with the league's advisory and finance committee in Manhattan on Wednesday.

Source: New York TimesNew Window

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22 Comments

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  1. dagoldeneagle
    1. Posted by dagoldeneagle Mon Oct 19, 2009 8:44 am EDT

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    american sports should be own by the american people.
    it's a scary thought that the soviet union is taking over even our entertainment industry.
  2. rylorax
    2. Posted by rylorax Mon Oct 19, 2009 8:54 am EDT

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    We have international players - it makes sense to have international owners. Besides the cold war is over it is no big deal to have someone who is not American own a team. . .
  3. www.Lsm.org
    3. Posted by www.Lsm.org Mon Oct 19, 2009 9:04 am EDT

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    Don't trust russian, they never paid, trust me, from experince
  4. dagoldeneagle
    4. Posted by dagoldeneagle Mon Oct 19, 2009 9:16 am EDT

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    russia and china are still the biggest threats to our national security.
    we can't be dependent economically to foreign countries. international players are employed by us, but we shouldn't be employed by the evil empires.
  5. jazzbooksfood
    5. Posted by jazzbooksfood Mon Oct 19, 2009 10:07 am EDT

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    well, maybe one of America's billionaires should step up & buy the freekin' Nets.
    However, the fact that none have done so (or at least not successfully) tells me none of them thought the financial risk was worth it.
    I still don't see why anyone gives a crap, tho.
  6. CLYDE S
    6. Posted by CLYDE S Mon Oct 19, 2009 10:14 am EDT

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    Hey if people can work for shug knight................hahaha. come on. have you ever been around a russian owned business??? i've been around maybe 10, and all the books were cooked and the employees were scared of the owners. in all 10. they want you to know they are dangerous so you dont mess with them or there money. much like " shug night ".
  7. Ken
    7. Posted by Ken Mon Oct 19, 2009 12:03 pm EDT

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    The game of basketball has gone too much into politics. What ever happened to the love of the game? Everybody watches and plays basketball (or any of other sport) just because of what they like. Who cares who owns the team or who is giving them paychecks (as long as they get their paychecks). I say get off the Russian's back.
  8. C
    8. Posted by C Mon Oct 19, 2009 1:46 pm EDT

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    When is this guy doing an interview? cant wait. GO NYETS!!
  9. ANDREA
    9. Posted by ANDREA Mon Oct 19, 2009 2:13 pm EDT

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    Too bad most of the posters on this forum seem to be teenagers and the misinformed. There are plenty of fortune500 co.s in the us that are owned by people and or investment groups from foreign countries. Like it or not, everything is for sale in the good ole USA. Besides, it's a "Global economy" , right ?
  10. darryl
    10. Posted by darryl Mon Oct 19, 2009 3:21 pm EDT

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    Spend some money and bring in Labron James. YYYEEEEAAAAHHHH!!!!!
  11. darryl
    11. Posted by darryl Mon Oct 19, 2009 3:21 pm EDT

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    Spend some money and bring in Kobe or Lebron.
  12. Larry M
    12. Posted by Larry M Mon Oct 19, 2009 5:20 pm EDT

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    Yeah we even have a Cuban owner !
  13. HMC
    13. Posted by HMC Mon Oct 19, 2009 5:23 pm EDT

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    JS - You're right, there is no more Soviet Union, but there are still Soviets among the Russians. There is nothing wrong with doing an extensive background check, especially since Mr. Prokhorov earned his money through what was quite possibly an underhanded deal with the collapsed Soviet state.
    Recall - From 1989 to 1992 he was head of the International Bank for Economic Cooperation's Management Board. In 1993, during the largely un-regulated privatization of former state-controlled industries after the fall of Communism, Prokhorov engineered the acquisition of Norilsk Nickel by the Onexim Bank, of which he was then chairman of the board.
    I hope the concerns are for naught. Hopefully, he will clear the background check and become an important contributing factor in spreading the NBA's, and America's, influence throughout the world.
  14. DAVID
    14. Posted by DAVID Mon Oct 19, 2009 7:03 pm EDT

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    If the background check felled through finding that Mr. Prokhorov is an individual that has no political involvement with the Russian Communist who has an agenda or propranganda/s, then let business do business and it is nobody else business to interfere since the owner wants to sell. This is a capitialism country, not doing business another with anyone regardless of race or anything is unAmerican, because we do other businesses with many other countries, we have very much to gain but little to lose. Besides, NBA needs new ideas, new thinking, and new ways of doing things and it doesn't hurt to gain new market. Learn the China's new ways of doing business, do business with anyone and countries with no string/s attached, no propanganda, no politic, business is just business, with both sides to gain.
  15. mofojet13
    15. Posted by mofojet13 Mon Oct 19, 2009 7:23 pm EDT

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    dagoldeneagle....... stop being a racist and stop acting like you know anything about anything like which countries pose a threat to the US. go to college and learn something.
  16. BasketballFan88
    16. Posted by BasketballFan88 Mon Oct 19, 2009 9:37 pm EDT

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    I think the NBA will make sure that he isn't somehow connected to the shady underworld of crime. The NBA knows what a nightmare that would be considering many already assume the game is fixed at a yearly basis. However he would be great for the NBA because first off he'll infuse the Nets with cash, and he'll also help expand the game to Russia.
  17. gibs0n9
    17. Posted by gibs0n9 Mon Oct 19, 2009 10:02 pm EDT

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    Russian, American, or Chinese; banking elitists are all corrupt beyond the laws, and furthermore, the money which control us all. What does the common man do but watch.
  18. Jeffrey A
    18. Posted by Jeffrey A Tue Oct 20, 2009 9:21 am EDT

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    yeah, anyone that is the richest person in russia is bound to be corrupt and in with the russian mob; of course, having a russian owning the nets and with them wanting to move to brooklyn could be a good thing for the Nets lagging fan base-since brooklyn probably has the highest russian population in the US
  19. bigboo's bro
    19. Posted by bigboo's bro Tue Oct 20, 2009 6:11 pm EDT

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    Ratso Ratner probably found someone even more crooked than he is to abet his rip off of NYC taxpayers and local Brooklyn residents. Business and real estate genius Ratner is little more than a master of the bait & switch and the misleading architect's rendering. The Atlantic Yards plan is rapidly becoming as big a boondoggle as some of his other publicly subsidized pump & run jobs.
  20. MAX_IN_MISSOURI
    20. Posted by MAX_IN_MISSOURI Wed Oct 21, 2009 2:50 am EDT

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    As far as I know, he hasn't raped anyone (like Kobe has)
    That makes him alright in my book
  21. Splitta
    21. Posted by Splitta Wed Oct 21, 2009 3:59 am EDT

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    if you allow a russian to own part or the whole team...you should be considered a terrorist and be shot on sight...no questions asked?....hell why not let the f'n chinese take over the St.Louis Rams....I know lets invite everyone else who hates us into the country so another city can get blown up...WTF IS WRONG WITH THIS GUY?...its bad enough they only caught one corrupt referee....imagine the russians getting involved in the game...and watch the friggin NJ Nets win the title....
  22. Henry H
    22. Posted by Henry H Fri Oct 23, 2009 1:50 am EDT

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    In all leagues, proper due diligence of any ownership groups should be expected and would sort out any issues of character that they might have with Pokharov.
    The Russians couldn't possibly know anything about running sports franchises... Like, err... say, Roman Abramovich and his results at Chelsea FC in the English Premier League (soccer)
    I agree with some of these posts. We should throw the foreigners out. Put the Glasers (owners Manchester United, the most valuable sports franchise in the world), George Gillett Jr (1/2 owner of Liverpool Football Club), General Sports and Entertainment of Detroit (owners of Derby County Football Club), and Randy Lerner (Aston Villa football club) back on the boat from the UK to the colonies.....
    When did ownership of a team of a bunch of guys that bounce a ball and try to put it through a metal ring become a matter of national security?
    Pokharov is also about 6-10 and could take some minutes off Josh Boone.....

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