When Mikhail Prokhorovgangly, boyish, 45, and a billionaire seventeen times overannounced his purchase of the New Jersey Nets and a majority stake of their yet-unbuilt arena at the Atlantic. He faces down his critics with the usual restraint and tact. The transformation of RBC began after its purchase in 2010 by entrepreneur Prokhorov, who pumped in resources and hired experienced journalists. Alexey Malgavko/Reuters. He made his fortune when he and a partner, Vladimir Potanin, won control of Norilsk Nickel, the worlds largest producer of nickel and palladium, in one of the infamous loans-for-shares auctions of 1995. 58 Source of Wealth Investments, Self Made Residence Frauenfeld, Switzerland Citizenship Russia Marital Status Single Education Master of Economics, Moscow Institute of Finance Did you know The. A former owner of the NBA's Brooklyn Nets, Prokhorov made his wealth through his mining and smelting company Norilsk Nickel, whose shares were once owned by Russian-Israeli oligarch Roman Abramovich. The billionaire magnate's goal is, in his eyes, an attempt "to preserve Putin's regime". The bank began to make loans to the cash-starved Russian government in exchange for liens on equity in the country's natural resource companies. Potanin apparently used the opportunity to try to push Prokhorov out of Norilsk Nickel. Mikhail Prokhorov, the owner at the time had put management under a mandate requiring Billy King to win us a championship within 5 years of moving to Brooklyn. He mostly wanted the arena so that []. Youre a strong, smart person, later on youll be able to tell your children or your foreign friends that there was once a country, it was called Russia. The Ynet news site reported Monday that while he came on a tourist visa, he has since filed all the necessary paperwork to become a citizen under Israels Law of Return. Dmitry Rybolovlev lives in Monaco, where he has owned a majority stake in the local soccer team since 2011 and helped the red and white bounce back from a lengthy slump to be one of Europes strongest competitors and biggest spenders. "The most resonant investigations have been published specifically in publications like RBC and Vedomosti," which, she notes, are thought of as niche publishers. In 2012 he ran for president against prime minister and former president Vladimir Putin. Sign in to stop seeing this, Mossad says it caught Cyprus terror plot assassin in Iran, airs clip of confession, NY alleges El Al owner used Medicaid funds meant for elderly to buy airline instead, Surrender: Coalition MKs up in arms after PM says hes dropped override clause, Likely human remains recovered from imploded deep-sea sub Titan. From Morocco, the New Economy Gateway series brings together regional leaders to discuss, analyze and propose solutions to the global economys most pressing problems. Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorovs Renaissance Capital investment bank will wind down its London, New York and Johannesburg offices and has terminated research coverage of all sectors globally, after President Vladimir Putins invasion of Ukraine upended its business. Christopher Cannon, Dean Halford, Brittany Harris and Julian Burgess. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mikhail-Prokhorov, International Bank for Economic Cooperation. in English from Illinois State University in 2005. Many observers believed that a growing rift between Prokhorov and Potanin had been exacerbated by an embarrassing scandal at a French ski resort in which Prokhorov had been accused of providing prostitutes to his guests. For as little as $6 a month you can help support our quality journalism while enjoying The Times of Israel AD-FREE, as well as accessing exclusive content available only to Times of Israel Community members. arrested him at his favorite French ski resort. In 2006, I threw on a black dress and hopped on the subway to New Yorks Hammerstein Ballroom to attend the Womens World Awards. .. He bought a 28% stake in Uralkali, a potash producer, in January 2014, paying more than $3.5 billion, and sold it in July 2016. After the fall of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbechev addressed the Forbes 75th anniversary. The worst TV ratings in the NBA hurt the team's chances for a big increase in rights fees. Prokhorovs ordinarily docile commenters (Great post, Mikhail Dmitrovich! After the Great October Revolution he went in 1923 with his parents to the Soviet Union. Most of us liked Mikhail Prokhorov, an oligarch who promised to reverse the constitutional amendments and crack down on state propaganda and corruption. Russian Billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov: From Oligarch To President? In January 2007 he was arrested on suspicion of arranging prostitutes for guests at a party he hosted in the French Alpine resort of Courchevel. Russian authorities stifled media and brought national television networks to heel in Putin's first two presidential terms (2000-08), most famously with the Gazprom Media takeover of the NTV channel in 2001. The venture was a success and ultimately employed several hundred workers. The Nets have been valued at around $1.3 billion, which means a sale could net Prokhorov nearly $1 billion in profits from his original, $220 million stake. The billionaire may also be capitalizing on an apparently hot market for NBA teams after former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer bought the Los Angeles Clippers last year for a record $2 billion. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information, Limit the Use of My Sensitive Personal Information. Former Soviet Union President Mikhail Gorbachev has died at age 91, according to multiple reports, more than three decades after he led an unprecedented era of economic reform in the Soviet state that preceded the fall of communism in eastern Europe. Well see. Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov has immigrated to Israel and received citizenship, according to a Monday report. Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE/Getty Images Talk about excitement! Click the link in that email to complete registration so you can comment. He completed the sale of his shares in Norilsk in 2008. Prokhorov, 56, arrived in Israel several days ago on a private jet from Switzerland, according to Hebrew media reports. Here are the factors I consider essential for determining if an employee is a yes for my company. The team confirmed Friday that Prokhorov is selling his controlling interest in the team as well as in the Nets' arena, Barclays Center, to Tsai in a deal. Thats why we started the Times of Israel eleven years ago - to provide discerning readers like you with must-read coverage of Israel and the Jewish world. Forbes counts 25 Russian billionaires who have been sanctioned by the U.S., U.K. or EU; 11 of these billionaires. REVEALED: Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov sold the Brooklyn Nets for $2.3B in 2019 'under pressure from Vladimir Putin to prove his loyalty' New report claims Prokhorov was under. By signing up, you agree to our User Agreement and Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement. Unlike other news outlets, we havent put up a paywall. A spokesman for Prokhorov told Bloomberg that the team is open to sale offers. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. According to the report, Prokhorov arrived several days ago on a private . He ran for the Russian presidency in 2012. Mikhail Prokhorov, in full Mikhail Dmitrievich Prokhorov, (born May 3, 1965, Moscow, Russia, U.S.S.R.), Russian businessman and famedoligarch" who made his fortune in the wake of the Soviet Unions collapse by buying shares in formerly state-run corporations. Read about our approach to external linking. A year later, however, he embarked upon a voluntary two-year stint in the Soviet army. Connecting decision makers to a dynamic network of information, people and ideas, Bloomberg quickly and accurately delivers business and financial information, news and insight around the world. In happier times for former Nets coach Jason Kidd and owner Mikhail Prokhorov, who trade pleasantries during a July 2013 news conference. He sold his 25% stake in Norilsk Nickel in 2008 to aluminum producer Rusal controlled by a billionaire Oleg Deripaska in a deal that brought him more than $5 billion cash and 14% of Rusal. Sauer left his position in August to join another Prokhorov business, Oneksim, which was among the targets of the April raids. 'Fifth Column' 2023 Cond Nast. He was a research editor with Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. from 2008 to 2016 and worked on Britannica Blog from 2010 Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews). Prokhorov, who is listed by Bloomberg as Russias 12th richest individual, with a net worth of $13.8 billion, has distanced himself from the Kremlin over the last decade, since running against Vladimir Putin for the Russian presidency, though he has also maintained ties to Moscow. Mikhail Prokhorov sold a 49% stake in the Brooklyn Nets to Alibaba executive Joseph Tsai in a $2.3 billion deal in 2018. Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov has received Israeli citizenship, the Ynet news site reports. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. RBC has experienced rough patches in the past. Dashing Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov is about to become the majority owner of the New Jersey Nets. Roman Abramovich shattered the record price paid for British soccer teams in 2003 when he paid $233 million for Chelsea FC. With their second pick in the first round of Wednesday's NHL Draft, the Colorado Avalanche went for the home-run, selecting 5'10" defenseman Mikhail Gulyayev out of Russia. Following the scandal, Potanin and Prokhorov began the split of their assets which ended in 2009-2010. Reflects change since 5 pm ET of prior trading day. A leksandr Mikhailovich Prokhorov was born on July 11th, 1916, in Australia. According to the BBC, Prokhorov's ties to the Kremlin caused some Russian opposition figures to suggest the oligarch's campaign was a ploy designed by Putin to draw attention away from protests at the time and provide liberal Russian voters with a candidate. He ran against Vladimir Putin in Russia's 2012 presidential race, gaining 8% of the vote. In 2008, he launched a Russian online and glossy lifestyle-and-business magazine entitled Snob and later took the project to the UK and the US. Omissions? This took a long time. Mikhail Prokhorov, the seventh-richest Russian and the 107th richest person in the world, bought the team and a share of the teams new Brooklyn arena, the Barclays Center, in 2010 (according to Bloomberg, his share of the arena is not for sale). Being a Russian oligarch these days isnt easy. It is his earlier closeness to the Kremlin that has prompted some Russian political figures to suggest he has come forward to challenge for the presidency merely to provide liberal voters with a candidate and to draw attention from recent anti-Putin protests. Among those sanctioned is Israeli-Russian businessman Roman Abramovich, Israels wealthiest citizen. While Abramovichs fortune has shrunk by nearly two percent in the past year according to Bloomberg, representing a loss of more than 200 million dollars, he has given no indication of wanting to sell the team. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). VideoThe surprising truth about frozen fruit, What Titan sub wreckage can tell us about the tragedy. Buys control of the NBA's Nets; moves team to Brooklyn in 2012. Graduates from Moscow State Finance Institute. He underwent media training to make him a more palatable owner to American basketball fans - reportedly watching Katie Couric's interview with Sarah Palin for tips on what not to do on camera. Each net worth figure is updated every business day after the close of trading in New York. Heads Right Cause Party; loses presidential bid to Putin in 2012. Unsanctioned Russian oligarch Mikhail Prokhorov obtained Israeli citizenship after arriving on a private jet from Switzerland last week, Ynet reported on Monday. Unsanctioned Russian oligarch Mikhail Prokhorov obtained Israeli citizenship after arriving on a private jet from Switzerland last week, Ynet reported on Monday. He got his chance in the KHL eventuallybut I'd hardly call it much of . He has not been sanctioned by the US, EU, or UK in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, as other Russian oligarchs have been, over their ties to Putin. Mr Prokhorov has appeared to identify with the protesters, announcing to reporters that Russian society was "waking up". RenCap will dismiss about a dozen people in New York and most of the 60 or so people in London, with only a small group remaining to wind down its UK operations, according to people familiar with the decision who asked not to be identified because the information is not public. Mikhail Prokhorov is a tycoon in Russia, Jay-Z's partner in Brooklyn--and a strong candidate to eventually replace Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin, a prospect the billionaire is turning into his full-time job. He ran for the Russian presidency in 2012. As for Prohkorov, he recently took to his blog to explain the situation to his online fans (and perhaps to some, in higher places, who are not his fans). our complete methodology , Edited by: Rescuers amputate leg of woman stuck in travelator, Man who carved on Colosseum was UK tourist - Italian police, Two dead as man opens fire at Moldova airport. That agency overhauled its reputation as a staid Soviet-era propaganda outlet to become seen by many as a Western-style news agency after Mironyuk became editor in chief in 2006. (AP Photo/Jason DeCrow), Russian billionaire and then-presidential candidate Mikhail Prokhorov gestures while speaking during his meeting with voters in the Russian Academy of Science, in Moscow, Russia, February 25, 2012. Russian tycoon Mikhail Prokhorov, who has said he will stand against Vladimir Putin in next year's presidential . In Norilska city constructed by labor camp prisoners and now so polluted that no vegetation grows within twenty miles of the city centerProkhorov and his partner had first to remove a stubborn sitting factory director, Anatoly Filatov, before taking over the plant. Prokhorov's father was involved in revolutionary activities . Arrested in France on suspicion of arranging prostitutes. Like a lot of young players in Russia, Gulyayev spent most of his team in the lower leagues. Mikhail Prokhorov was born in Moscow on 3 May 1965. On April 25, RBC published a fresh investigation that found a friend of Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin and a former Putin classmate to be newly minted oil tycoons. Some of them decided to jump overboard to swim in the Neva River. Moscow has a popular coffee chain that serves a ten-dollar cappuccinobut even a big man like Prokhorov cannot drink nine hundred and fifty million cappuccinos. "It's the general line that RBK is pursuing. There are Jewish communities in both nations and Russia maintains a heavy military presence in Syria, on Israels northern border, where the IDF is seeking to continue its aerial sorties against Iran-backed targets. Aleksandr M. Prokhorov Biographical . So he has begun to look abroad. What's Prokhorov's story, though? Prokhorov formed ONEXIM Group, an investment fund with interests in nanotechnology and hydrogen fuel cells, in May. But the party's September congress descended into chaos and Mr Prokhorov quit. Gorbachev's 1991 resignation as the Soviet Unions leader portended the fall of communism in eastern Europe. Mikhail Prokhorov, in full Mikhail Dmitrievich Prokhorov, (born May 3, 1965, Moscow, Russia, U.S.S.R.), Russian businessman and famed " oligarch " who made his fortune in the wake of the Soviet Union 's collapse by buying shares in formerly state-run corporations. Among his most controversial ideas is the introduction of a voluntary 60-hour working week. He invited one of Russia's best known singers, Alla Pugacheva, to join his group, with the aim of fighting December's parliamentary elections. Mikhail Prokhorov, who built a fortune in nickel mining and used to own the Brooklyn Nets NBA team, is betting that VR is the future of music shows. Mr Nemtsov said the plan was an attempt to distract the attention of liberal protesters and stop "the wave of popular dissent". The 49-year-old businessman, worth roughly $11.1 billion, wants to unload the Brooklyn Nets, Bloomberg reports. Prokhorov sold his 38% stake in Polyus Gold for $3.6 billion in February 2013. The Nets' billionaire owner caused some jaws to drop when he had one of his rare press conferences following the purge of his top two basketball men. "It doesn't need to be the Kremlin got upset with a particular story and decided to crack down," Arkady Ostrovsky, author of The Invention Of Russia and a correspondent for The Economist magazine, says. 4 April 2022, 3:17 pm. Prokhorov, valued as the. Recently, the media group seems to have been raising hackles among Russia's elite with its investigative reporting. Prokhorov currently owns the largest gold producer in Russia and was the owner of the NBAs Brooklyn Nets basketball team between 2009 and 2019. In an October 2010 interview at the time of the US launch he said the "energy and drive" of New York reminded him of Moscow, adding that he had no plans to live anywhere but Moscow. There he met Vladimir Potanin, who had worked for the foreign trade ministry and was eager to capitalize on the rapid privatization occurring as the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. Could a record-setting divorce settlement representing half his fortune (though hes still contesting the courts ruling) and the effects of the dropping ruble push Rybolovlev to change that approach? Now, a barrage of national TV reports casting billionaire RBC owner Mikhail Prokhorov in a harsh light as well as raids on a clutch of his companies have led to speculation that the Kremlin is unhappy with the independent editorial tack his media group has taken. The steel tycoon, today Russias fourth wealthiest man, poured money into the team until it made a profit last year and helped it become one of the best in Europe. While still a student, he started a business treating blue jeans to appear fashionably distressed and then reselling them. In 2016, Prokhorovs media group Onexim published documents accusing Putins son-in-law of shady financial dealings, resulting in Russian tax authorities raiding the companys offices, according to reports. Prokhorov attempted to link himself to groups that questioned the legitimacy of Putins win, but an appearance at a protest rally in Moscows Pushkin Square the day after the election was met with little enthusiasm. This buyout seemed like the end of Prokhorovs days as a serious player, until world equity and commodity prices crashed a few months later and he woke up as the richest man in Russia. The Brooklyn Nets owner talked with the media in the wake of his decision to clean house. Speakers discussed the impact of the slowing global economy, rising food and energy prices, supply-chain shocks and the growing risk of sovereign debt distress. "Miracle happens!" Prokhorov and Potanin register their IFC Bank. russia 7 Western Assets Owned (for Now) by Russian Billionaires By Noah Rayman January 14, 2015 8:55 PM EST R ussian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov is reportedly looking for a buyer for. Following the completion of his army service in 1985, Prokhorov did manual labour for a year before returning to the finance institute. Prokhorov founded Onexim Group, a Moscow-based company with interests in banking, insurance and real estate. During his campaign, which he referred to as "the most important decision of his life," according to Bloomberg, Prokhorov refused to bash Putin, instead focusing on "what he will do as president.". Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov's Renaissance Capital investment bank will wind down its London, New York and Johannesburg offices and has terminated research coverage of all sectors. It has continued. In 2007, Alisher Usmanov bought an initial stake in the Arsenal Football Club and now owns about 30% of the team. The best and brightest of them are in exile or in jail; others, after feasting on leverage during the commodities boom, now have tummies full of debt. Mikhail Prokhorov is sometimes seen active on Twitter. Earlier this month, the embattled oligarch Oleg Deripaska (who bought Prokhorov out of Norilsk Nickel, and used to be Russias richest man), was asked to explain why, as the owner of a failing Russian automaker (GAZ), he was buying a failing German automaker (Opel) from a failing American automaker (G.M.). On April 11, Gazprom Media's REN TV attacked Prokhorov for himself holding assets in offshore accounts. How Yevgeny Prigozhins rebellion exposed the Russian President. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. During his Sunday night TV show on April 10, host and state media boss Dmitry Kiselyov held up a copy of RBC's newspaper that carried a story on the Panama leak with a front page picture of Putin. Corrections? His story is that of a man who hasn't made a single career mistake. In 1934 Alexander Prochorov entered the Physics Department of the Leningrad State University. Bloomberg reporting. Russian billionaire and owner of the NBA's Brooklyn Nets, Mikhail Prokhorov, said he plans to relocate the company that owns the basketball team to Russia, as a . But in the wake of the rubles plummet, Russian buyers in Londons luxury market have all but vanished, brokers told Bloomberg News last month. World Mar 25, 2014 2:25 PM EDT. But as the journalism we do is costly, we invite readers for whom The Times of Israel has become important to help support our work by joining The Times of Israel Community. Prokhorov was put in charge of the firm, serving as chief executive officer from 2001 to 2007, and helped to transform the company into the world's largest nickel and palladium producer. That mentality cost the Nets their future & handed the Celtics two of games brightest stars. September 23, 2009. "America, I come in peace," he said to US journalists at a press conference in New York to introduce him as the new owner of the basketball team. Mr Prokhorov told CBS News that he was nicknamed "giraffe" at school because of his height - he is more than 2m tall. There are many reasons that Prokhorov, the first foreign owner of an NBA team, could be considering a sale. For sometime now Ratner has been trying to unload his interest in the NBA team without any luck, which makes perfect sense. This ostensibly neutral position has enabled Israel to assume the role of mediator between the two warring parties. Russian Vodka tycoon Roustam Tariko spent $25.5 million for an estate on Miami Beachs Star Island in 2011, the largest Miami Beach sale in more than half a decade. UNEXIM was situated as one of the auctioneers of the loans. On this week's episode of Idea Generation, producer Tay Keith brings us on a journey from his early days taking piano lessons, to meeting BlocBoy JB and working together to build their careers, and eventually producing smash hits for artists like Beyonce, Drake and Travis Scott, including the Diamond record "Sicko Mode. Under his leadership the company began to show a profit, some of which Prokhorov diverted into a gold-mining venture, Polyus, in 2006. The record-breaking $88 million purchase of a penthouse on Central Park West in New York City in 2012 was linked to Dmitry Rybolovlev, who made his fortune in the fertilizer industry. Of all the baubles that can be bought by billionaires, none are more intoxicating than a big time sports franchise. Were really pleased that youve read X Times of Israel articles in the past month. Prokhorov held various jobs as a student, including unloading meat and cement from rail cars. For the Nets were recently bought by Russian, 6-foot-8, super-duper-rich, jet-ski-jumping, Ivan-Drago-sounding, nickel-mining, flocked-by-beautiful-women, quarter-Jewish, many-times-over-billionaire, Mikhail Prokhorov. Russian tycoon Mikhail Prokhorov's RBC media holding has shot to prominence with investigations into Vladimir Putin's inner circle. Learning these can help you recognize gaslighting if it ever happens to you. Throughout the course of the war, Israel has walked a tightrope between Russia and Ukraine. UNEXIMs assets were moved to another bank formed for the purpose of holding them; that bank eventually merged with UNEXIM in 2000. In 2009, Mikhail Prokhorov, a swaggering Russian minerals oligarch out of favor with the Vladimir Putin regime, spent less than $400 million buying control of the moribund New Jersey Nets and a. The sale came a year after he was arrested for allegedly arranging prostitutes for guests at a hotel in the French skiing resort of Courchevel. The index is a dynamic measure of personal wealth based on changes in markets, the economy and By Mikhail Zygar. Photos: @investing_and_business/Instagram, Luxurylaunches, AFP, Villa La Leopolda sits on land in the French Riviera once owned by King Leopold II of Belgium and was used in Hitchcocks 1955 film, To Catch a Thief, with Cary Grant and Grace Kelly, Prokhorov has quite the fortune: he sold the Brooklyn Nets to Alibaba executive Joseph Tsai and built the Onexim group together with fellow billionaire, Vladimir Potanin. (AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev), Brooklyn Nets former owner Mikhail Prokhorov, center, speaks with reporters after a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Barclays Center, the NBA basketball teams new home in New York, September 21, 2012. He suggested in his own defense that GAZ would be able to learn Opels engineering secrets. 6 March 2012. He lost, getting 7.98 percent of the votes. 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A man walks towards RBC's office building in Moscow. Master of Economics, Moscow Institute of Finance. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. "We must take into account that in recent years, business publications have taken on the role of the most important social-political media," says Galina Timchenko, who founded the new, Riga-based Meduza website after she left Lenta.ru. The surprising truth about frozen fruit. converted to U.S. dollars at current exchange rates Read The Russian owner stormed in on a Jet Ski, but will now exit the NBA with nothing more than a press release. This weeks news about Prokhorov and the Nets began circulating as a rumor in Russia in July. Magazines, seventh-richest Russian and the 107th richest person in the world, Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information, 7 Western Assets Owned (for Now) by Russian Billionaires. The New York Times reports that his father was responsible for sourcing extra long beds for basketball players competing at the 1980 Moscow Olympics and ordered an extra one for his son. He founded Onexim Group, a private investment holding company, in 2007. Writing on Snob, a media outlet also owned by Prokhorov, opposition socialite-cum-journalist Ksenia Sobchak cast the pressure on RBK as the latest blow against Russia's embattled liberal minority. He leaves a more complicated legacy in the NBA than many would have you believe. But RBC broke the public silence on Tikhonova, and it has continued digging into Putin's alleged inner circle, investigating the rapid enrichment of Tikhonova's purported husband, the 33-year-old Kirill Shamalov, the son of a longtime friend of Putin. Prokhorov, 56, arrived in Israel several days ago on a private jet from. The Moscow-based business journalist John Helmer has somewhat ingeniously speculated that an earlier rumor from the summer, about Prokhorov buying the Italian soccer team Roma, is connected to this: that Silvio Berlusconi asked his friend Putin to find someone to bail out Roma, and that Prokhorov is in fact buying Roma as a condition for being allowed to buy the Nets. His decision to stand in the 2012 presidential elections has been treated with similar scepticism. His timing proved fortuitous; the liquidation occurred just prior to the global financial meltdown that began in the latter part of that year. RBC also covered the massive Panama Papers financial-document leak in great detail, drawing the ire of Putin allies. By Ethan Trex | Sep 24, 2009 It looks like Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov has reached a deal to buy the floundering New Jersey Nets. But I fear that this is precisely the conclusion that all those boiled frogs came to.". In the downtown Brooklyn area known as Atlantic Yards, a neighborhood almost equally devoid of vegetation due to the development projects of current Nets owner Bruce Ratner, Prokhorov will have to get past the no less stubborn Daniel Goldstein, the man who almost single-handedly has been holding up the construction of the stadium for the past five years.