Sept. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Mikhail Prokhorov bought a majority share of the New Jersey Nets and a stake in the project to build their new arena in Brooklyn in a deal that makes him the first Russian owner of a major U.S. professional sports team.

Prokhorov, a 6-foot-7 basketball fan who is listed by Forbes magazine as his country’s richest person, agreed to buy 80 percent of the National Basketball Association team and 45 percent of the Barclays Center from Bruce Ratner, both said in a news release.

The $200 million deal comes three months before the deadline for Ratner to break ground on the arena or lose financing through tax-exempt bonds issued by a New York state agency. Barclays Plc also had the right to pull out of its 20- year, $400 million naming-rights deal for the arena if construction hasn’t started by that date.

“This partnership will ensure the successful completion of a world-class entertainment venue in Brooklyn, the relocation of the NBA Nets basketball team and the economic and housing benefits of the Atlantic Yards Project,” according to the statement from Forest City Ratner Cos., Nets Sports & Entertainment and Onexim Group, Prokhorov’s company.

Local Opposition

The residential and commercial project has drawn neighborhood opposition, with 21 community groups forming the “Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn” coalition in February 2004.

The group’s advisory board includes actor Steve Buscemi of “The Sopranos,” former New York Yankees pitcher Jim Bouton and author Jonathan Lethem, who wrote “Motherless Brooklyn.”

“Now that Prokhorov has a big foot in the door, who will really be running the beleaguered Atlantic Yards project show?” spokesman Daniel Goldstein, said in a news release on the group’s Web site.

A bachelor and basketball fan, Prokhorov, has a fortune of $9.5 billion, according to Forbes magazine’s Russian edition.

The 44-year-old graduate of the Moscow Financial Institute built his business empire with partner and ex-government trade official Vladimir Potanin following the Soviet Union’s 1991 collapse.

Nickel Mining

The two started in banking, which helped them gain control of the country’s biggest nickel-mining enterprise in 1997 when the late president Boris Yeltsin auctioned stakes in Russia’s largest industrial complexes as a way of helping his cash- strapped government.

The French police arrested the playboy billionaire at the ski resort of Courchevel in 2007 on charges of promoting prostitution. Prokhorov denied the allegations when he was released four days later, telling police that the 10 Russian women arrested together with his friends were students and models, not prostitutes.

In April 2008, he sold a 25 percent stake in OAO Norilsk Nickel, Russia’s biggest mining company, to Oleg Deripaska for about $7 billion in cash and 14 percent of aluminum producer United Co. Rusal.

Prokhorov isn’t all about steel and aluminum. He once owned the CSKA Moscow basketball club, and the New York Times quoted an unidentified executive as saying that Prokhorov bragged he will be “the only NBA owner who can dunk.”

Russian Basketball

Prokhorov said yesterday that he would use ownership in the Nets to promote the game in Russia.

“We must change the model of basketball development in Russia using super-modern systems of coaching,” Prokhorov said. “The base for such development should be a strong youth basketball league.”

The Nets’ planned arena in the heart of Brooklyn is less than 10 miles from the borough’s Brighton Beach section, which is known as “Little Odessa” for its high concentration of Russian emigres. The transaction is expected to close by the first quarter of 2010 and needs approval by NBA owners.

NBA Commissioner David Stern, who has expanded the league’s television, retail and other business units overseas, said he welcomes the Russian businessman to the league.

“Interest in basketball and the NBA is growing rapidly on a global basis,” Stern said in a press release. “We are especially encouraged by Mr. Prokhorov’s commitment to the Nets and the opportunity it presents to continue the growth of basketball in Russia.”

To contact the reporters on this story: Curtis Eichelberger in Washington at ceichelberge@bloomberg.net; Yuriy Humber in Moscow at yhumber@bloomberg.net or

Last Updated: September 23, 2009 16:21 EDT