It is unlikely, but Mikhail Prokhorov’s tenure as owner of the New Jersey Nets could be coming to an end.
He also is vowing to donate $17 billion of his $18 billion fortune to charity if he defeats Vladimir Putin and several other candidates in the Russian presidential election.
“I’ll need something to live on,” Prokhorov said in a talk show on state-run Russian television. “I’ll sell everything, all my assets when I become president and donate almost all of the money to charity.”
The Nets are relocating from New Jersey to Brooklyn next season, with a master plan of keeping Deron Williams after he opts out of his contract, signing Dwight Howard as an unrestricted free agent and pairing those two with current rookie Marshon Brooks, sharpshooter Anthony Morrow, center Brook Lopez and their No. 1 pick — likely a lottery pick in what will be a deep draft — as the cornerstones of the rechristened franchise.
Putin needs to garner more than 50 percent of the vote to avoid a runoff against the second-place finisher in his bid to return to the presidency. He was elected president in 2000 and 2004 and stepped down in 2008 in favor of his protégé, Dmitry Medvedev, to comply with constitutional term limits. In a recent poll, Prokhorov was supported by just 5 percent of likely voters, according to a poll by the Moscow-based Public Opinion Foundation.
“My main objective is to make it to a second round,” Prokhorov said on a campaign stop in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk on Jan. 27, according to the state-run RIA Novosti news service.
For more on this, click on this story from Bloomberg News.
Won’t matter. The chances of Putin even facing a runoff are basically zero (since Russia is super corrupt and all that). If it does happen though, just contract the Nets, lest they end up like the Hornets.