Brian Lewis and Josh Kosman of the Post report that Russian President Vladimir Putin forced Mikhail Prokhorov to sell the Nets as U.S.-Russian relations soured following the original Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2014. The pressure, the two write, ultimately led to the Russian oligarch to sell first 49 percent, then all, of his NBA holdings including Barclays Center to Joe Tsai over a two-year span from October 2017 through October 2019.
Events that led Prokhorov’s 2019 sale of the Nets and Barclays Center to Chinese billionaire Joe Tsai stretch back five years earlier, according to sources close to the situation.