If trying to fix one of the sorriest teams in the NBA wasn’t daunting enough, billionaire Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov now wants to fix Russia, too.
The 6-foot-8 Russian said today, he would welcome being his homeland’s next prime minister.
“I think I am capable of doing the tasks of the prime minister,” Prokhorov said at a news conference in Moscow.
Prokhorov – who was recently elected to lead the new Kremlin-friendly Right Cause party in Russia – has been majority owner of the Nets since May 2010, making him the first non-North American to own a NBA franchise.
He also owns 45 percent interest in the team’s future Brooklyn home, the under-construction Barclays Center.
The club declined comment on whether Prokhorov’s political aspirations could affect team operations.
A Prokhorov spokeswoman said “day-to-day decision making will remain within the the current structure” and that “Mikhail will continue to be a great supporter and fan.”
Michael Cramer, the former president of the baseball’s Texas Rangers and the NHL’s Dallas Stars, said many successful owners let their upper management call the shots on daily operations.
Sports business experts said Prokhorov doesn’t need to be a George Steinbrenner-type owner for his team to do well.
“He would certainly be distracted trying to solve Russia’s problem, which depending on who you speak to could be equal in difficulty to solving the Nets’ problems,” said Cramer, who also heads the University of Texas’ sports and media program. “Some would argue that an absentee owner is better.”
Robert Boland, a sports business professor at New York University, said “it’ll be hard” for Prokhorov to remain hands-on with the Nets and 4,000 miles away in Russia, but added that the club doesn’t “have to suffer over it.”
The closest example, he said, is Pittsburgh Steelers owner Dan Rooney, who in 2009 turned day-to-day operations of the successful club over to his son Art II, after being appointed ambassador to Ireland by President Obama.
Prokhorov said that his views as primer would have to be in agreement with those of the country’s president before accepting the gig.
“I could not be a Prime Minister under an agenda which I don’t believe in,” he said.
The Prime minister is the second most-powerful post in Russia and is appointed by the president.
Russia’s current president is Dmitry Medvedev, who was elected through a popular vote, and Vladimir Putin is Prime Minister.