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Did Mikhail Prokhorov call James Dolan "that little man" in an interview for the New York Magazine article on the Nets' move to Brooklyn? According to author Will Leitch, he did ... three times.
In both the magazine article and supplementary online notes, Will Leitch says Prokhorov clearly tried to diminish the Knicks owner. "Prokhorov told me back in December that he plans on attending a quarter of the regular-season games and 'all the playoff ones.' He also made sure that I heard him call Dolan 'that little man'," wrote in the online notes.
Nets officials have quietly tried to downplay the controversy, essentially saying it was all lost in translation. Leitch does note of Prokhorov, "His English is spotty, and he talks really fast, and we were on an iPhone, so large swaths of the interview were unusable." However, Leitch emphasized re the Dolan quote, "The guy knows what he's doing."
While the Nets would like to see this go away -- it's not the sort of thing owners say-- by Tuesday morning, the story was the lead item on ESPN's NBA page.
- Mikhail Prokhorov needles Knicks - Matt Ehalt - ESPN New York
- Prokhorov refers to James Dolan as "the little man" - Kurt Helin - NBC Sports
- Mikhail Prokhorov calls James Dolan 'that little man' - Royce Young - CBS Sports
- Knicks links: Mikhail Prokhorov takes dig at James Dolan - Alex Raskin - Star-Ledger
- Prokhorov calls Dolan ‘that little man’ in NY Magazine story - Justin Tasch - New York Daily News
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Nets' Prokhorov refers to Knicks' Dolan as 'that little man' in magazine - Tim Bontemps - New York Post