New Jersey Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov said he and free agent-to-be Deron Williams are on the “same page” after the two met Monday for the first time in over a year.
“I think we (had) a very good discussion,” Prokhorov, who is in New York for the NBA’s owners meetings, said of Williams. “He really wants to win. And I want to win maybe even more. Really I don’t want to go into details. But really I think at this stage, we are on the same page.”
The Nets want Williams to be a centerpiece of the team as it moves into the new Barclays Center in Brooklyn for the 2012-13 season. But Williams plans to test the free agent market, and many around the NBA believe the star point guard will end up with his hometown Dallas Mavericks.
"Let the best man win," Prokhorov said of competing with Mavs owner Mark Cuban for Williams’ services. "If he wins, I will crush him in kickboxing throwdown."
As the New York Daily News noted, Prokhorov, until his current trip to the U.S., had not attended a Nets game in over 18 months. On Tuesday, while showing off the Barclays Center to a number of reporters, he made his first media appearance with the team since he publicly called off trade negotiations with the Denver Nuggets regarding Carmelo Anthony last January.
In other words, Prokhorov has not taken advantage of being the incumbent owner in the Williams sweepstakes—something Williams made clear last month.
“I don’t know Mark Cuban,” Williams said before a February game in Dallas, per the Daily News. “I’ve come in contact with Mikhail Prokhorov like three times (before Monday). I don’t know enough about either one to compare.”
But Prokhorov continues to exude confidence about the future of the Nets.
"I will keep my prediction of a championship," he said. "So I will do my best together with my friends, together with my partners, we will make the Brooklyn Nets the champions of the NBA. And I am very committed with this.”
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