Now that Kiki Vandewghe has been sent on his way, Mikhail Prokhorov and the New Jersey Nets have some room in the team’s front office. And while nothing’s been decided set, signs are pointing to Prokhorov bringing in someone from Russia to take a hand in the operations. Yahoo! Sports’ Adrian Wojnarowski reports:
Report: Nets And Prokhorov Looking To Add CSKA Moscow’s Andrei Vatutin
As Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov begins making an imprint as owner of the New Jersey Nets, he’s nearing an agreement with CSKA Moscow president Andrei Vatutin to take a senior-level, front-office job with the franchise, European and NBA sources told Yahoo! Sports.
Sources say Vatutin, 36, will join a revamped Nets front office after CSKA’s season ends in the next few weeks. With the firing of general manager Kiki Vandeweghe on Wednesday, Nets president Rod Thorn will take back his general manager duties.
So right now, it looks as though current Nets president Rod Thorn will be the one to inherit Vandeweghe’s role as general manager, while Valutin will be taking on some undefined role in the front office that’s somewhere along the lines of “vice president.” But what’s interesting here isn’t that the Nets hired a new vice president for the front office, but that Prokhorov likely hired Vatutin in hopes that he will be groomed for a larger role somewhere down the line. Could the NBA be looking at its first European GM?
In a few years, that’s a very real possibility. Prokhorov has said he intends to make the Nets the NBA’s first “global franchise.” Clearly, he’s not kidding around.
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