When Mikhail Prokhorov was asked this weekend about signing Russian players, as the Knicks had done with Timofey Mozgov, he seemed very nonchalant about his rival's move into his terrority.  "I am very glad the Knicks found the player they like, the second Russian player in the NBA," he said matter-of-factly.

In spite of all the Knick-generated mid-summer hype --that Donnie Walsh had hidden a Russian seven-footer from the Nets-- Peter Vecsey, like Mitch Lawrence last week, wonders how good the kid can be if Prokhorov wasn't interested.

"How can that possibly happen?" Vecsey asks, a bit incredulously.

"If the 7-foot-1 Mozgov genuinely possesses professional promise, you've got to wonder why a man with a several billion sources wasn't alerted to that possibility by a countryman or two with basketball brains...or at least by the Nyets' international scout."

• Nets' pass on Mozgov a bad sign - Peter Vecsey - New York Post