After the Milwaukee Bucks sold for $550 million, then weeks later former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer agreed to buy the Los Angeles Clippers for $2 billion, 29 other NBA owners got a big smile on their face. The rich are getting richer.
With the size of those numbers more than a few might put some feelers out in market — you don’t get rich enough to own an NBA team not thinking about how to turn a profit on your investments, and there’s a lot of profit in the NBA right now. One of those guys looking around is Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov, reports Adrian Wojnarowski at Yahoo Sports.In the wake of the Los Angeles Clippers selling for a league-record $2 billion, Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov has been open to overtures from potential buyers for the Brooklyn Nets, league sources told Yahoo Sports.
“Just listening so far,” a league official with direct knowledge told Yahoo Sports. “They haven’t indicated a desire or willingness to sell. …Nothing was initiated by [Prokhorov].”
If the Clippers are worth $2 billion, the Nets should be worth at least that much.
Prokhorov is worth $11 billion, according to Forbes Magazine. Prokhorov purchased his share of the Nets for $223 million (he owns 80 percent of the team), but since then he has moved the team to the news and more profitable Barclay’s Center in Brooklyn (he owns 45 percent of that also). Which is in the nation’s largest media market. The team’s value has gone up.
Enough that the Russian oligarch might sell?
Who knows? But you can be sure he’s not the only one listening to offers right now. That’s a lot of scratch, even to already rich guys.