Purchase of Nets Unpopular in Russia

The new boss in Jersey is facing some political pushback at home: “Seen Russian tycoon Mikhail Prokhorov’s bid for the Nets may be a boon to the troubled basketball team, but some Russian legislators and analysts call it a blow to the nation’s sports. ‘I can’t consider this action as anything other than unpatriotic,’ Aslambek Aslakhanov, a member of the upper parliament chamber’s sports committee, said Thursday, according to the state news agency RIA Novosti. ‘We also have talented children here, but sports isn’t being developed. They’re not trying in order for us to return to our former sports ranking of best in the world.”’