Roman Abramovich just a ‘poor’ relation to compatriot rolling into town

Now 45, Prokhorov's dunking days are over but at 6ft 8ins, he's at home in the NBA's land of the giants.

The former owner of CSKA Moscow's football and basketball set-up had to pass stringent NBA tests before he was voted in by his new peers in the summer.

He paid £127million for 80 per cent of the team, with previous owner Bruce Ratner retaining the rest plus the majority shareholding of their new Barclays Center home and the huge regeneration of the surrounding area.

"When this opportunity came up I negotiated the deal for him [to buy the Nets] and he asked me to be chairman," added Charlier.

"We've got a very long-term plan. The NBA is very different from European football. If you look at when Roman bought Chelsea, you can spend a lot of money to get the players you want. You can say I want Shevchenko, I want Drogba', pay to break their contracts and have the players come over.

"In the NBA you can't do that. You can't break the contracts, you have to have trades, so you can't turn around the team in one year. They key to us is to be a Championship-winning team by the time we get to Brooklyn."