National Basketball Association

Will Prokhorov get what he wants?

Published Jan. 13, 2011 12:00 a.m. ET

foxsports

Before new Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov went back to Moscow last fall to tend to his 40-odd businesses in Russia, he told his top New Jersey execs that they would be able to do their job without his interference.

In other words, even if he had more money than any other NBA owner, he wasn’t going to be the Russian version of George Steinbrenner right out of the box.

“I played some ball, but I don’t know as much as the pros do,’’ Prokhorov told one executive. “So I might call to talk. But otherwise, I will not bother anyone.’’

Then he had one last thought that must still be reverberating around the Nets’ offices in East Rutherford: “I expect results.’’

Uh-oh.

Everywhere Prokhorov looks, he can’t be happy with the results he’s been getting thus far.

Have you checked the standings lately? There has been little in the way of positive results for the Nets, who are in next-to-last place in the Eastern Conference with a 10-28 record going into Friday's game in Staples Center against the Lakers. Only Cleveland has a worse record in the East.

The Nets' two best players, Devin Harris and Brook Lopez, continue to show that they’re not the kind of players you can build around. So the rebuilding project Prokhorov has been looking at might be bigger than he expected when he became majority owner last spring.

Even with the addition of Avery Johnson, a significant upgrade over interim coach Kiki Vandeweghe, the Nets have been one of the most anemic teams in the NBA.

“When you don’t have talent,’’ said one team source, “it doesn’t matter who’s coaching your team.’’

Now we come to the area where Prokhorov must be climbing the walls back home in Moscow. He's still seen nothing in the way of positive results in terms of the Nets making a deal for Carmelo Anthony.

Anthony is the kind of star that Prokhorov badly wants. He’s got instant name recognition, he’s a big-time scorer, and although he’s not on the top tier of superstars with LeBron James, Kobe Bryant and Dwyane Wade, he’s someone the Nets would love to build around.

“He sees that in New York, you need a star,’’ said one NBA executive who has had dealings with Prokhorov. “He can look right in front of him and see what (Amar’e) Stoudemire has done for the Knicks. I think if Prokhorov can do anything to get Anthony, he’d do it because he wants to have a good team and Anthony has the star quality he’s looking for.’’

The Nets appeared to come close to getting Anthony last fall, until a proposed four-way deal involving New Jersey, Charlotte, Utah and the Nuggets fell through.

Then last weekend, they appeared to be close again to landing Denver’s star shooter in a reconfigured three-team deal with Detroit. But Denver never agreed to pull the trigger. Among other holdups in a deal, the Nuggets are content to see the Nets keep losing, ensuring that if and when they do make the trade, the No.1 pick they get from New Jersey for this coming June will be solid gold.

So Prokhorov can only wait and wonder what it is finally going to take to get his rebuilding program going with a player who can get him to the playoffs for the next five seasons, if not longer. His tenure got off to a dismal start when the Nets, coming off a 12-win season, finished third in the lottery, a long way from consensus No. 1 pick John Wall. They converted the pick into Derick Favors, who is still a teenager and has been slow to develop. It wasn’t until this past week when Johnson finally decided to start Favors, a power forward who played only one season at Georgia Tech.

Even with his unmatched bank account, worth a reported $9 billion, Prokhorov got shut out last summer for James, Wade, Chris Bosh and Carlos Boozer. Without an arena in Brooklyn up and running, he was doomed from the start when he paid recruiting visits to James and the other top players in the Class of 2010.

The lack of a finished arena in Brooklyn’s Atlantic Yards -- plus the fact that the team was going to play in Newark -- hurt their cause. The only reason the bluest of the blue chips agreed to meet with the Nets was that Prokhorov was smart enough to include Jay-Z, a Nets minority owner, in New Jersey’s entourage.

“All those guys love Jay-Z, they’re best buddies,’’ said one team exec. “That was really our hook in terms of getting LeBron and those other guys to sit down at the table with us.’’

Jay-Z will be back with Prokhorov if the Nets and Nuggets can strike a deal. He’ll fly with Prokhorov and perhaps Johnson and GM Billy King to meet with Anthony and try to convince him that he should agree to an “extend-and-trade’’ agreement. That would lock up Anthony with a three-year, $65-million extension he was offered by Denver last spring.

As for his opening act as the NBA’s most intriguing new owner, Prokhorov hasn’t been around this season. He told NBA officials that he wouldn’t become more of a presence until the team moves to its new arena in Brooklyn in another two seasons.

Next week, when the Nets host the Utah Jazz, Prokhorov will be on the scene in Newark to get a first-hand look at his Nets. It’s being billed as “An Evening of Russian Culture.’’

So far, he’s had a few chats with King, whose cell phone tends to show a Moscow number if rumors about the rival Knicks getting Anthony make their way halfway around the world. Lately, there have been more rumors about Anthony and the Knicks, who remain in the hunt because the Garden is still Anthony’s preferred destination, according to sources in his camp.

But with Prokhorov backing the move 100 percent, the Nets are still trying to land him and, at least in some quarters, are considered the favorite to land ‘Melo. They’ve got more to offer Denver than any other team, and they’re being aggressive, which is just how Mikhail Prokhorov wants it.