Brooklyn Nets: Mikhail Prokhorov Still Target Of Ignorant Pot Shots
By Phil Watson
When Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov arrived in the U.S. and purchased the New Jersey Nets for $200 million in 2010, he became the just the second foreign owner of a major professional sports franchise in this country.
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As such, he’s been subject to criticism—fair and unfair—as well as stereotypes which have been decidedly of the unfair variety.
An executive for the club, now the Brooklyn Nets, said as much at a forum this week in London.
A third owner with foreign ties—Pakistani Shahid Khan, owner of the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars—has been the subject of chatter trying to tie him to terrorist activity, chatter based solely on his ethnicity, and Nets executive Irina Pavlova was asked at a Leaders in Sport conference whether Prokhorov has been subject to similar stereotyping.
“Early on, definitely,” Pavlova said, per the New York Daily News. “And again, still I read some stuff in the press and ignorant people will say what they say. They are stereotypes that all Russians are crooks, they come in with suitcases with money. It’s hard to say anything to this. It’s just ridiculous.
“But it’s something you have to deal with and I think if there were any doubts about if our owner is serious or if he’s a businessman early on, I think with experience and basically showing people what you’re about, that’s when those doubts dissipate. But there’s always going to be people who say things that are just ignorant.”
Stereotypes can be a hard thing to shake. There was a commercial for DirecTV in 2010 that many claimed to be a parody of Prokhorov:
The commercial was first aired about two months after Prokhorov was approved as owner of the Nets and it’s hard not to connect the dots.
Prior to his approval by the NBA, U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.) called for a government investigation of Prokhorov’s business dealings in Zimbabwe and claimed the NBA’s background check of Prokhorov was “disgusting,” per ESPN New York.
The NBA took to Prokhorov’s defense.
"“Congressman Pascrell is misinformed,” NBA spokesman Mike Bass said at the time. “U.S. companies are not prohibited from doing business in Zimbabwe; rather, they are prohibited from conducting business with specifically identified individuals or entities in that country.“The NBA is aware of no information that Mr. Prokhorov is engaged in business dealings with any of these individuals or entities.”"
But just two summers ago, the NBA launched an investigation of its own into Prokhorov after free agent forward Andrei Kirilenko agreed to a below-market deal as a free agent. Owners and team executives claimed a Russian conspiracy, according to a report from Yahoo Sports.
Kirilenko opted out of a $10 million deal with the Minnesota Timberwolves before signing for the $3.1 million midlevel exception in Brooklyn in the summer of 2013 and many around the league were crying foul.
“Let’s see if the league has any credibility,” one NBA owner said. “It’s not about stopping it. It’s about punishing them if they’re doing it.”
“There should be a probe,” an Eastern Conference general manager said. “How obvious is it?”
Those comments were, of course, made anonymously.
The NBA did investigate the signing and cleared the Nets of any wrongdoing.
“Old stereotypes, they’re very hard to beat and break,” Prokhorov told the New York Post in September 2013. “I respect all the NBA rules and we play by the NBA rules. But I want just to stress once again like with luxury tax, I will do whatever I can in order to win championship but under the NBA rules. Please make no mistake about this.”
Prokhorov is an easy target, make no mistake. There are still questions about how he amassed his fortune despite the NBA’s vetting process.
Then-Commissioner David Stern told The New York Times in 2009 that the process would be as thorough, perhaps more so, than for any other prospective owner.
“We have a very extensive, stringent, some would say, invasive, but I wouldn’t, process for vetting the character and financial capacity of all owners,” Stern said. “We may have to look wider at our sources (to vet Prokhorov), but it’s the same route you travel, just a little longer.”
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But the Prokhorov bashing began then and has not ever completely abated.
“When we vet Russian joint-venture partners for our clients, I tell them there is no black and white in Russia, it’s all gray,” said Mike Ackerman, a former CIA senior operations officer who is president of The Ackerman Group, a private security firm. “Information can be had, but you have to be prepared to accept the grayness.”
In the end, James Fenkner, then a director of Red Star Asset Management, an emerging-market fund that invests in Russia and a critic of Prokhorov’s business practices, was fairly accurate when he said in 2009:
“He’s not the worst offender in a system that was set up to benefit a few insiders. He’s played the system well. He’s very charismatic, very captivating. I’d be surprised if he’s seen as anything but a colorful owner.”
That he has been, but a colorful owner who has not been exempt from some cheap shots from both within and without the NBA.