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Times takes optimistic look at Prokhorov as face of Nets, suggests trip to China was to recruit companies as sponsors (but what about EB-5 investors?)

In Nets’ Top Attraction May Be Prokhorov, an article in tomorrow's Sports section, the New York Times offers an optimistic take on the Nets' struggles: majority owner Mikhail Prokhorov "may end up being the face of the organization."

(I pointed out October 24 that the ESPN The Magazine portrayed Prokhorov as the face of the Nets, one of only four teams where players weren't front and center.)

The article states:
He has also moved fast to rebuild the team and has not shied away from the limelight. Since he took over in May, he has hired Avery Johnson as coach, Billy King as general manager and taken the Nets to Russia and China to help convince foreign companies to spend their money on the team.
Ah, but was the trip to China mainly to sign up sponsors, or was it to convince immigrant investors to get their green cards via the EB-5 program by buying into the "Brooklyn Arena and Infrastructure Project"?

And why was Prokhorov so oddly avoided by those pushing the project?

Comments

  1. We did a Noticing New York piece about how the Times is NOT reporting on the elephants in the room when it comes to Nets and their travels abroad. We wrote about the analytical gyrations the Times went through to explain the `oddness’* of how the Nets were now busy traveling “internationally.” In point of fact, “international travel” was the press release version of the story. Mainly the Nets are going just to China and Russia, that’s that, and we pointed out (as indicated in this story above) that there are very good reasons to explain why the Nets are traveling to those two particular countries; to sell EB-5 green cards to the Chinese and to address Prokhorov’s reputation as a “gangster” (Taibbi ‘s take) in his home country of Russia.

    (* In common with AYR’s choice of language above, the Times in its non-news-reporting gyrations zeroed in on its subject identifying “oddness” crying out for explanation.)

    See:

    Sunday, October 10, 2010
    Noting One Oddity, The Times, in Another, Neglects Obvious Explanations: Ratner’s EB-5 Green Cards Sale; A Reason For the Nets To Go To China, And. .

    http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2010/10/noting-one-oddity-times-in-another.html

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