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He never wanted to be a basketball team owner...not for long anyway. Before he bought the Nets, he thought NBA games were divided into halves, like college games. Once he got control, he sold the team's first round pick and then wouldn't match the Nuggets offer for Kenyon Martin, hoping to entice new investors by cutting expenses.
Shocked at the response, he tried to make up for it by approving the trade for Vince Carter. He had Lawrence Frank tutor him in the intricacies of the game, but it was never about basketball. It was about real estate and even that didn't work very well.
Now, he's won, sort of. Tuesday, the NBA is expected to approve Mikhail Prokhorov as the league's first foreign owner--and maybe its richest. Nets fans are relieved.
On Wednesday, the Ratner era ends officially and he can focus on building his dream of Atlantic Yards. The Wall Street Journal talks to him about his time in the limelight...and finds him his usual optimistic, if beaten and bruised, self.
- Bruce Ratner's NBA Waterloo - Matthew Futterman - Wall Street Journal
- WSJ reports Ratner had decided to ditch Gehry by November 2008 - Norman Oder - Atlantic Yards Report