Prokhorov going from boom to bust

Once-Maverick Owner Reportedly Looking to Sell Stake in Nets

January 14, 2015 By John Torenli, Sports Editor Brooklyn Daily Eagle

From incoming maverick to potential seller, Mikhail Prokhorov’s reign as Nets owner may be coming to an end sooner than expected. AP Photo

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Remember Rex Ryan?

The now-former Jets head coach came to the tri-state area six shorts years ago with bold assurances that the franchise’s Super Bowl drought would soon be coming to an end.

Ryan claimed he didn’t come here to kiss three-time Super Bowl-winning coach Bill Belichick’s rings up in New England, or to play second fiddle to the New York football Giants, whom he shared a stadium with in East Rutherford.

And Ryan actually made his long-suffering fan base believe in his blustery bravado by guiding Gang Green to within a few plays of reaching the Super Bowl in each of his first two seasons at the helm.

But four playoff-free campaigns later, Ryan is in Buffalo and the Jets have already hired his replacement, Todd Bowles.

Brooklyn Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov might be headed down the same road, leaving Downtown Brooklyn meekly – albeit with a potential $900 million profit in his coffers – rather than atop the NBA world, as he originally promised.

The Russian billionaire, who shelled out about $220 million to take the reins of the soon-to-be relocated Nets from Downtown real estate magnate Bruce Ratner back in May of 2010, put his own bachelor status on the line when he first got here.

He insisted that he would get married if the Nets didn’t win the franchise’s first-ever NBA title here in Brooklyn within five years.

As that five-year deadline approaches, however, Prokhorov may be more interested in getting as much money as he possibly can for the Nets before wedding invitations can be mailed out.

According to a report in Bloomberg News, the 49-year-old Prokhorov has hired Evercore Partners to unload the Nets to the highest bidder, with estimates for the sale coming in right now at $1.3 billion.

You can’t blame a billionaire for wanting to maximize his profit, especially when ESPN reported that the Nets lost about $144 million last year despite playing in a brand new state-of-the-art arena and dishing out the largest payroll in NBA history, upwards of $210 million, including luxury taxes.

Not to mention the ongoing disintegration of the Ruble in his native Russia.

“As we have been saying for many months, team ownership is open to listening to offers,” said Ellen Pinchuk, a spokesperson for Prokhorov.

“That’s just part of the business,” she added. “There is nothing imminent in terms of the sale of any stake in the team.”

To even suggest that Prokhorov is willing to unload the team forces us to look back at some of his cavalier antics upon assuming ownership.

Teaming up with hip-hop impresario and minority Nets owner Jay-Z, Prokhorov had the competitive gall to place his now-infamous “Blueprint for Greatness” billboard well within viewing distance of Madison Square Garden, where rival owner James Dolan of the East River rival Knicks could pore over it and fume on a daily basis.

Prokhorov also indicated that he wanted the Nets to follow in the footsteps of the Lakers, a franchise with 16 NBA titles, rather than the Knicks, who are still in search of the championship magic that led to their last crown in 1973.

He paid oft-injured, underachieving point guard Deron Williams $98 million to be the face of his franchise, plastering No. 8’s image up and down Atlantic Avenue in advance of the Nets’ much-anticipated arrival.

He locked up Brook Lopez and Joe Johnson to form his own Big Three here in Brooklyn, though Lopez has missed giant chunks of two of his the previous three seasons with foot and ankle injuries.

His fired Avery Johnson only two months into his tenure here in Brooklyn, exiled P.J. Carlesimo after a first-round playoff loss against a tougher, grittier Chicago Bulls team and was forced to show Jason Kidd the door after arguably the greatest Net ever wanted more control within the organization following Brooklyn’s first playoff series win since the Dodgers beat the Yankees in the 1955 World Series.

This season under Lionel Hollins, the team’s fourth coach in two-plus years here in Brooklyn, the Nets are 16-22, had lost six straight entering Wednesday night’s game with visiting Memphis, don’t know when Williams will return from a mysterious rib injury and are using Lopez as a reserve behind second-year center Mason Plumlee.

In other words, that quest to hang the franchise’s first-ever championship banner from the rafters of the Barclays Center may take at least another five years, meaning a second, or perhaps even a third, marriage for Prokhorov if he wishes to continue betting his bachelorhood.

With the Atlanta Hawks drawing big-money interest on the open market and the Los Angeles Clippers having recently been sold for upwards of $2 billion, Prokhorov knows it’s a good time to sell, sell, sell to the highest bidder.

He also knows, somewhere deep down, that if he does, he will forever be remembered here as the owner who talked the talk, but didn’t come close to walking the walk.

Prokhorov’s “Blueprint for Greatness” apparently came with a get-out-while-you-can, get-rich-quick back-up plan.

One he appears to be in the initial phases of putting into action.