ENTROPY UPDATE: RICH RUSSIAN TO BUY NJ NETS

Jamie Johnson, Vanity Fair - When I heard the news that Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov had arranged a deal to purchase the New Jersey Nets basketball franchise and a portion of their proposed new stadium complex in Brooklyn, New York, I couldn't help but ask myself, "What took him so long?" Prokhorov, an avid basketball aficionado and the possessor of the title Russia's Richest Man, will be the first foreign owner of an NBA team. Unlike many European nations, especially England, the United States has relied largely on money from the pockets of American billionaires to support its professional sports organizations. But the infusion of cash from a prominent oligarch to a desperate NBA outfit may officially signal a turning of the tide. . . With the American mega-rich failing to finance traditionally domestic projects, the door is swinging wide open for anyone who is willing to pay. Challenges to America's ruling class from abroad have been virtually nonexistent for more than a century, yet anticipation of Prokhorov's arrival in Brooklyn suggests that times are ripe for change.