Nets Dancers in Mexico City Working Prokhorov's Globalization Game

Barring a lockout, the Nets will be back in Russia this fall. Christophe Charlier, the Nets chairman, said as much this week in the UK's SportsPro Magazine. He told the author that a big part of MIkhail Prokhorov's globalization strategy is making the Nets "Russia's team". More than 30 Nets games appeared on Russian TV last season.

And in a little noticed comment last January on Russian Culture Night, Prokhorov said team trips to Russia (and not just Moscow) "will become a regular tradition". Whether the Nets do other foreign trips this coming season (after trips to four foreign countries on three continents last season) is uncertain, but Brett Yormark has said, "We work with the league to say 'hey, if you need a team to play globally, we'll raise our hand'."

The globalization also goes beyond the team to the Nets Dancers, Dunking Divas and Sly, whose passports have been stamped the past two years by authorities in China, Britain, the Philippines, South Korea and now Mexico. The  Dancers performed this week at the NBA Jam on Mexico City's Paseo de la Reforma, the capital's version of Fifth Avenue. The Dancers served as team and league ambassadors and distributed Nets gear, all part of Prokhorov's plan for world domination.

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