Basketball may be gaining popularity in China, South East Asia and even South America, but in Russia, it’s experienced some hard times. A poll of the Russian sports fans a few years back ranked it only the sixth most popular sport, behind handball among others.
Of course, for nine years, a Russian oligarch owned the Brooklyn Nets and although they never fulfilled Mikhail Prokhorov’s dream of an NBA championship (and he never fulfilled his promise to wed if they didn’t), the Nets became one of the country’s favorites, particularly when the legendary Andrei Kirilenko joined the team for a couple of years at the end of career in the NBA.