BOSTON — Mikhail Prokhorov, the Russian billionaire and recently approved principal owner of the Nets, insisted he has a “simple, very simple task” for new coach Avery Johnson and his team.
“A dynasty,” Prokhorov said from his courtside seat during Boston’s 92-86 victory in Game 5 of the Finals last night.
“Well, it’s better than him telling me we’re going to be consistently in the lottery. He’s got a big vision,” Johnson, who will be formally introduced tomorrow as the 16th coach in the Nets’ NBA history, said sitting alongside his new Russian boss.
Not bad. Before he even has a practice, Johnson has a directive to join the Celtics, Lakers, Bulls. And a really good place to start that quest was seated directly behind Prokhorov — Miami Heat superstar Dwyane Wade, one of the A-listers on this summer’s free-agent market.
“Totally coincidental,” Wade said of his seat location.
“I’m not even looking,” Johnson said. “One, because he beat me in the Finals [in 2006] and two because I don’t want to get fined.”
Johnson has enough to worry about, building that whole dynasty thing. Well, if he can’t get Wade, he can always go after LeBron James.
Prokhorov obviously was into the excitement of the game and the fervor of the fans and he stressed: “This is great. Brooklyn will be better.”
Hey, the guy doesn’t set his sights low. Prokhorov noted how he stepped back and let Nets president Rod Thorn run the search for a coach, which resulted in Johnson this past week.
“Rod Thorn knows much better than I do and I trust him,” Prokhorov said. “Now, we have a great winning coach. He keeps the record for the league — 70 percent of wins for the three years. It’s great. What is good is we have a lot in common. We are both gym rats. We spend hours in the gym and we are hungry to win. He was nicknamed ‘The Little General’ and my nickname is ‘General.’ It is a match made in heaven.”
Prokhorov, at 6-foot-8, towered over his newest employee who received the marching order of: “Just that we need to create a dynasty team. That’s it very simple, a very simple task.”
And Prokhorov feels Johnson, 45, is up to the task because he said he did his homework.
“He has been the coach of the year and he won a championship as a player [1999, Spurs],” Prokhorov said. “That is very important. We are building not only a championship team, we are building a dynasty team. It’s very important to have a coach who has [a winning pedigree].”
So the casually-dressed Prokhorov, who is heading back to Russia today, returned to witness one of the great rivalries in all sports.
“I am ecstatic over the game. Very interesting. It is my second live NBA game in my life and the first Finals game. It’s really good time,” he said, “in spite of my jet lag.”