So, Anybody Want To Buy The Nets?

Would-be Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner is getting so desperate to alleviate the debt burdening his $4 billion plan to build an ugly Nets stadium and other useless eyesores in Brooklyn that he's frantically trying to sell off most of the team. Officials at his company, Forest City Ratner, publicly deny the sales effort, but the Star-Ledger reports that last week Ratner flew to Moscow to meet face-to-face with billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, the chief financier for CSKA Moscow. Other potential suckers investors are rumored to include Terry Semel, former CEO of Yahoo and Warner Bros, and some other rich guys with money to burn. Meanwhile, according to Forbes, the Nets dropped 13% in value last season, and morale within the organization is reportedly abysmal due to layoffs, pay cuts, and the team's general habit of sucking. (Granted, not as much as the Knicks.) One former Nets employee tells the Star-Ledger, "They've really created an environment where you don't want to stay there anymore. It's gotten really bad, especially for those of us who have gone through five owners in 10 years. It's just so damn bleak." But bleakness being Russia's specialty, maybe Prokhorov's a perfect fit?