NBA News Wire
NBA roundup: Nets might be for sale
Jeff Hawkins is an award-winning sportswriter with more than four decades in the industry (print and digital media). A freelance writer/stay-at-home dad since 2008, Hawkins started his career with newspaper stints in Michigan, North Carolina, Florida, Upstate New York and Illinois, where he earned the 2004 APSE first-place award for column writing (under 40,000 circulation). As a beat writer, he covered NASCAR Winston Cup events at NHIS (1999-2003), the NHL's Chicago Blackhawks (2003-06) and the NFL's Carolina Panthers (2011-12). Hawkins penned four youth sports books, including a Michael Jordan biography. Hawkins' main hobbies include mountain bike riding, 5k trail runs at the Whitewater Center in Charlotte, N.C., and live music.
All posts by Jeff HawkinsUpdated15 Oct 2021
Brooklyn Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov reportedly is exploring a possible sale of a piece of the club, and a prospective buyer might be the group that owns the Los Angeles Dodgers.
According to NetsDaily.com and ESPNNewYork.com, Prokhorov met in Russia with Guggenheim Partners executive Todd Boehly, whose group purchased the Dodgers for $2 billion in 2012.
Prokhorov is seeking a “combination of assets” with Guggenheim, NetsDaily.com reported. The story said the Russian magnate would retain controlling interest in the Nets, and Nets minority owner Bruce Ratner would still control the team’s home arena, Barclays Center. The team and the arena are each valued at more than $1 billion.
—The NBA remains committed to keeping the Hawks in Atlanta through a change in majority ownership, but the city is pushing for a sale as quickly as possible.
Atlanta mayor Kasim Reed held a news conference on Friday to make it clear that NBA commissioner Adam Sterling supports Atlanta no matter who ends up owning a majority stake in the team. Reed said he has fielded numerous questions about a one-hour meeting with Sterling and NBA executives last Friday in New York.
“The NBA is absolutely committed to the city of Atlanta,” Reed said. “That really has been the threshold question given the way these events have unfolded.”
Bruce Levenson, who owns a 50.1 percent stage in the Hawks, announced that he’s selling his portion of the team.
—Five-on-five competition is returning to the NBA Draft Combine next year.
The league considered a proposal from its competition committee and decided to return to a format similar to the pre-draft camp that was discontinued in 2009, ESPN.com reported Friday.
For the past five years, players were put mostly through shooting and ball-handling skills drills, which prompted NBA teams to complain about a lack of scrimmage-type action to evaluate the talent.
