Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov has a message for Mavericks owner Mark Cuban: Pursue Deron Williams at your own risk.
“Let the best man win,” the Russian billionaire said with a smile inside the shell of the Nets’ future home, the Barclays Center, during Tuesday’s press conference in Brooklyn. “If he wins, I’ll crush him in a kickboxing throwdown.”
Unfortunately for Nets fans, it’s unlikely Williams, the team’s superstar point guard who repeatedly has said he will opt-out of the final year of his contract and become a free agent this summer, will allow a kickboxing match to determine his future.
That means Prokhorov, who said he met with Williams Monday, needs to prove to his star that his future should be with the Nets and in the team’s soon-to-be-completed new home, rather than Dallas or some other NBA arena next season.
“We had, I think, a very good discussion,” Prokhorov said. “He really wants to win, and I want to maybe win even more. I don’t really want to go into details, but I think at this stage, we’re on the same page.
“I think he wants to win, and he wants to be part of a great franchise. So we have the same view on this.”
After taking a tour of the arena, Prokhorov spoke glowingly of his team’s future home.
“I’m sure it will be the best arena in the world,” he said.
Though Prokhorov said he’s committed to making the Nets the NBA’s best team, he stressed patience while sticking to his prediction when he bought the team in May 2010 that it would win a title within five years.
“The Nets, like the arena, is still under construction,” he said. “It’s in the building stage. And I’ll keep my prediction for the championship. I’ll do my best, together with my partners, to make the Brooklyn Nets the champions of the NBA…. I’m very committed to this.”
After attending his first game in more than a year Sunday, watching the Nets defeat the Cavaliers 122-117 in overtime from a luxury box above center court at Prudential Center, He watched Tuesday night’s 107-88 loss the 76ers in the same box.
As for the team’s lack of success this season, Prokhorov said he was sure the Nets would have made the playoffs if not for the incredible number of injuries the team has suffered this season, including six players having been ruled out for the season.
Prokhorov also said he was happy with the work general manager Billy King and coach Avery Johnson have done.
“I think Billy and Avery are doing a great job,” he said. “We have a common view, not only on the day-to-day routine but on our strategic goal. To have a championship team, you need to have a global view, a strategic view and a common knowledge of how to reach these goals.“From my point of view, we have a great team spirit. … I hope next season we’ll be much better than the previous two.”
In addition to seeing his team play and touring its future home, Prokhorov is in town this week for the NBA’s Board of Governors meetings, which take place Thursday and Friday. It is during those meetings that the franchise’s move to Brooklyn will be officially approved, along with its name change to the Brooklyn Nets.