Billionaire Prokhorov Heeding Putin Call With NBA’s Nets

Less than two years after taking the New Jersey Nets over the Hudson River and into Brooklyn, billionaire owner Mikhail Prokhorov is planning a longer move: to Russia.

No, they won’t play their home games there, but Prokhorov is planning on putting the basketball team under the control of one of his Russian companies. The move would allow Prokhorov to heed President Vladimir Putin’s ban on politicians having foreign accounts and equity and his call for Russian-owned companies to be registered and pay taxes locally. Prokhorov told reporters in the Kremlin yesterday that such a transfer would comply with the National Basketball Association’s rules.