Could Son of Famed Soviet Coach Join Nets?

Aleksandr Gomelsky, son of the Soviet Union's legendary basketball coach, may join the Nets in an executive role, according to a report in the Russian press. No specific role was reported. Gomelsky's father is a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame. It was he who encouraged Mikhail Prokhorov to buy a stake in CSKA Moscow. The younger Gomelsky currently manages Olympic sports facilities in Moscow named for his father and had previously worked as basketball executive in Russia. Gomelsky, who lived in New Jersey for 15 years and is close to David Stern, flew to New Jersey Thursday, reports Kommersant, Russia's leading business journal. Kommersant quoted a single source within Prokhorov's "inner circle".

So far, Prokhorov has appointed two Moscow-based executives to key positions with the Nets: Irina Pavlova, a former Google Russia executive, as president of Onexim Sports and Entertainment, the company that holds his stake in the team and Barclays Center; and Christophe Charlier, a French banker who is deputy CEO of the parent Onexim Group, as chairman of the board of the team. According to Nets insiders, Charlier, along with Prokhorov and Dmitry Razumov, Onexim's CEO, are members of the Chairman's Council that  runs the team. Andrei Vatutin, CSKA Moscow's president, was reportedly in line for a position as assistant general manager but has recently cooled toward the idea, the Star-Ledger reports Thursday.