NBA Approves Nets Sale From Ratner to Prokhorov

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atlantic avenue looking south 3 NBA Approves Nets Sale From Ratner to ProkhorovBruce Ratner’s tenure at the top of an NBA team is over.

Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov was just approved as the Nets’ new owner by the NBA’s board of commissioners, according to a statement sent out by the NBA.

This ends a more than six-year stretch for Mr. Ratner, the Brooklyn-based developer whose Nets sunk to nearly the worst record in NBA history this season as he struggled to begin the project that attracted him to the Nets in the first place: Atlantic Yards, the planned $4.9 billion Brooklyn mixed-use development that holds a new Nets arena as a centerpiece.

Construction has finally begun on the arena, and last week, the holdout who had led so much of the fervent opposition to the project for years, Daniel Goldstein, moved out after the state claimed his land and he settled with Mr. Ratner for $3 million.

It’s indeed a new era for Brooklyn, as the chapter of fighting and opposition has come to a close, clearing the way for a less dynamic narrative of construction.

Here’s the statement sent out by the NBA:

“We are pleased that the NBA’s Board of Governors approved Mikhail Prokhorov’s purchase of majority ownership of the Nets, welcoming into the NBA ownership ranks the league’s first majority investor from outside of North America,” said NBA Commissioner David Stern.  “We anticipate that his passion for the game and business acumen will be of considerable value not only to the Nets franchise but to the entire NBA.”

ebrown@observer.com