It's official! The Brooklyn Nets, formerly of New Jersey, will be adding future hall of fame players Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce to their roster, as well as sharpshooter Jason Terry. Coupled with free agent signings that include Andray Blatche, Shaun Livingston, and most notably and most recently Andrei Kirilienko, the Nets may have had the NBA's best offseason. These transactions though did not come without a price; assuming that Kirilenko is added to the roster the Nets will have a salary of about 101 million dollars, the highest in the NBA. Due to recent changes in the CBA (collective bargaining agreement) the Nets will also pay close to 83 million dollars in the luxury tax. The man who will be paying the bills for this team, is Russian billionaire Mikhail Provorhov.
When Prokorhov bought the Nets back in 2010, all we knew was that he was a Russian billionaire who stands at about 6'8'' and has a passion for women, basketball, and winning. To Prokorhov's dismay, the Nets were bad for the Provorhov's first two seasons. At the end of the 2011-2012 season, also Prokorhov's second full season as an owner, Prokorhov's young super star, Deron Williams faced a free agent dilemma, does he stay with the Nets or go to the hometown Dallas Mavericks. The Nets were on the verge of moving to Brooklyn while the Mavericks also had a strong owner in Mark Cuban and a seasoned superstar in Dirk Nowitzki. The two most important contributing factors to Williams' decision to stay with the Nets was the team's willingness to spend and it's arrival in the classic New York borough. Prior to Williams' decision, general manager Billy King traded for small forward Gerald Wallace of the Portland Trailblazers along with shooting guard Joe Johnson of the Atlanta Hawks. Both of these pricey players arrival were requested by Deron Williams. While the Dwight Howard saga was ending with his departure to the Lakers, the Nets also gave center Brook Lopez a multi year deal worth around 60 million dollars. King was told from day one as general manager from Prokorhov, do what you have to do to win. The move to Brooklyn and the spending spree led to an exciting year in Brooklyn and the Nets first playoff birth since 2007.
Unfortunately as the season progressed, one thing was clear; the Nets lacked heart. With a dismal playoff performance against a beat-up Chicago Bulls team, the Nets went into the Summer of 2013 wondering how they could improve their roster. They had few valuable assets, (Kris Humphries, Marshon Brooks) and unappealing draft picks due to their presumed future playoff appearances. Furthermore they had little cap flexibility due to a payroll that was already top three in the association. All of these possible roadblocks did not stop Billy King or Prokorhov's consistent plan of doing what was necessary to win. By the draft, the Nets were already trying to figure out what they needed to do. Clearly Brooks and Humphries were not part of the future so who could you get for them, Andrea Bargnani, David Lee, Ryan Anderson? Suddenly, as the first round progressed, the Nets struck a monumental deal. They were able to acquire Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Jason Terry. The Nets lost picks and inconsequential role players, but received two hall of fame players, a 6th man, heart and toughness. The Nets picked up more salary and filled two positions that were lacking during the 2012-2013 season. One of the reasons why the Nets lost the series against the Chicago Bulls was because their starting lineup featured two ineffective offensive starters, in Gerald Wallace and Reggie Evans. The Bulls were basically able to play 5 on 3 during the series and double team both Johnson and Williams. Pierce and Garnett will be able to fill these positions perfectly. With this deal though, comes a rising tax bill. With additions also of Blatche, Livingston and Kirilenko the argument can be made that the Nets have the best roster in basketball as well as the most expensive. The truth is that none of this could have been done without their owner, Mikhail Prokorhov.
More owners need to be willing to spend the way that Prokorhov spends. With increasing ticket sales, jersey prices, and even food prices, fans should get what they pay for. Now, not all owners are going to be multi-billionaires, but if you are going to consider buying a team, you should do it the Steinbrenner way, the Prokorhov way. You don't need to be paying 80 million in the luxury tax, but more owners need to be spending. Sports are expensive for the fans, they should also be expensive for the owners. You gotta give the people what they want. There is nothing more fun, as a fan of the Nets to know that any move is possible, because financial restrictions are not an issue. Thankfully we are starting to see cheaper owners spend more and more money. Look at the Clippers; once deemed the cheapest owner in sports, Donald Sterling has multiple max players on his roster as well as the most expensive coach in the league. Sports are a growing industry and the owners and players should not be the only winners of this shift. The fans deserve to see a squad that is not made up of a bunch of scrubs. Obviously there will always be bad teams and good teams and believe it or not the common fan understands this. What they cannot bare, is to watch their teams not spend money when there are glaring needs in the roster. You can hate him or be disgusted by him, but Mikhail Prokorhov is the ideal owner.
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