Report: Prokhorov has 'no interest' in selling Nets, minority owners evaluating franchise value

Responding to reports indicating otherwise on Saturday, Brooklyn Nets majority owner Mikhail Prokhorov is denying that he is interested in selling the franchise.

Prokhorov released a statement late Saturday through a spokesperson saying, "We have no interest in selling the team." The report was not phrased as if Prokhorov was looking to sell, simply that he was "just listening" as some had inquired about a potential price.

According to a report from the New York Post, those overtures may have been initiated after minority owners sought to evaluate the franchise's total value in the wake of the Los Angeles Clippers being sold in principle for $2 billion.

From the report:

It has been public knowledge that Bruce Ratner, who owns up to 20 percent of the team, has been looking to sell. Plus there are about 100 other minority owners. After the Clippers mess broke, people wanted to know what they had.

“They are getting an evaluation,” one league source said. “So they need to know what the whole thing is worth.”

The Russian billionaire owns 80 percent of the Nets and 45 percent of Barclays Center, assets he paid roughly $223 million for in 2010. 

Forbes' most recent estimates, while not perceived to be a terrific gauge but a rough approximation, valued the Nets at 35 percent more valuable than the Clippers. Extrapolating the Clippers' sale price (again, just as a very rough approximation) would peg the Nets at $2.7 billion in franchise worth, meaning the minority owners who make up the 20 percent Prokhorov doesn't own have shares worth roughly $540 million.

While the math is just back-of-the-envelope stuff with some very loose assumptions, one thing is exceedingly evident: the Clippers sale is making those with stakes in NBA franchises reconsider their holding position and the value of those assets.

Having said that, we're inclined to believe Prokhorov isn't really in this to turn a quick profit after spending nearly $200 million on salary and luxury tax payments in 2013-14.