The Legend Continues

Never in Nets history and not in recent New York sports history has a sports team owner so completely captivated the New York media the way Mikhail Prokhorov did.  On almost an hourly basis, he had some new opportunity to show off his personality.  The point of the campaign was not just to introduce him, but to show he's not some Russian ogre.

There was a press brunch that even Dave D'Alessandro and Fred Kerber got dressed up for; a press conference that was filled with so many quips, smirks and one-liners that the New York Times suggested the new Nets owner had found his inner "Shecky"; the disarming of Mike Francesa with that one killer question, "Where's the Mad Dog?" Breakfast with the Mayor and Jay-Z Check!  Tour of Yankee Stadium. Check!  First hiring, first firing. Check! Check!

But all that was prologue to the trip's public relations master stroke: sharing 40 minutes with a random blogger ...and not in a hotel suite ...but rather in a Brooklyn cafe' ...while sipping tea!  Vinnie Rotondaro had just graduated from Columbia Journalism School when Prokhorov sat down with him, giving him an interview everyone wanted but only he and Mike Francesa got. You don't think writers eat this up?  Read on.