Steve Stoute is business partner with Jay-Z in the advertising and marketing agency that's pushing the Nets move to Brooklyn.  He's also Jay-Z's marketing consultant and the man seen accompaniying the Nets minority owner to games, where he'll sit with Jay-Z and Dmitry Razumov, Mikhail Prokhorov's top aide.

Stoute thinks this could be the last wage-based negotiation between players and owners, that in the next contract the players will want equity in the league, just as Jay-Z has had equity in the record companies and apparel manufacturers that sell his trademark brands and another client, LeBron James, owns pieces of products he endorses.

• N.B.A. Needs a Drastically Different Model - William C. Rhoden - New York Times
• Jay-Z is a rap icon whose brand goes well beyond the music - Robert Klara - Adweek