Report: Prokhorov ends agreement with bank exploring sale of Nets

The on-again, off-again "For Sale" sign on the Brooklyn Nets has flickered into the off position once more.

Nets majority owner Mikhail Prokhorov has ended his agreements with Evercore Partners, according to a report from Darren Rovell of ESPN. Prokhorov had hired the investment bank to explore a sale of the team in January, confirming growing suspicion that the Russian billionaire was looking to divest himself from the team.

Two months later, either  that's no longer the case, or Evercore wasn't the right partner to help facilitate a transfer of Prokhorov's enormous stake.

With 80 percent ownership of the team and a 45 percent stake in Barclays Center, it's believed Prokhorov's total holding is worth $2 billion. Bruce Ratner owns the remaining 20 percent of the team and 55 percent of the facility. He, too, had retained Evercore in an effort to sell his share.

The assumption when Prokhorov hired the same bank was they could be looking to move the entire 100 percent together to a single investment group, potentially Guggenheim Sports and Entertainment, who own the Los Angeles Dodgers and have spoken with the Nets about a partnership in the past.

It was reported in January that Prokhorov's interest in selling may have been due to a weakened Russian ruble, which has since stabilized to a degree thanks to the upward trend in oil prices.

While Prokhorov could still look to divest at a substantial profit - he purchased his stake in 2010 for $200 million - it no longer seems an immediate priority.

"Nothing has happened and they've been talking about it (in the media) for a year," Nets CEO Brett Yormark said last week. "So I'd probably say I don't think anything is going to happen. We have an ownership group that is very committed."

So committed, in fact, that Prokhorov had promised to end his bachelorhood and get married if the Nets didn't win a championship within five years of his taking over. May will mark five years, so perhaps Prokhorov was only trying to sell the team in time to avoid his promised nuptials.