Russian Billionaire Thirsts For Expensive Wine, Mediocre Basketball

What better to follow up a meeting with a handful of NBA owners than a $19,000 lunch? That’s right, nothing, which is why Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, who is looking to purchase the floundering New Jersey Nets and bring then into Brooklyn, stopped into Nello on the Upper East Side Wednesday with a few friends, the Post reported.

Their check included $825 for three orders of truffle tagliolini; $600 for four orders of truffle carpaccio; $210 for three orders of veal chops with mushrooms; and $72 for six large waters. Yes, $72 for six large waters. Prokhorov, with an estimated fortune of $9.5 billion, reached a tentative agreement with current Nets owner and developer Bruce Ratner last month to pay $200 million up front and an unspecified amount of future funding to acquire an 80 percent stake in the Nets and a 45 percent share of the $800 million Barclays Center project in Brooklyn.

Nello Balan, owner of the restaurant, told the Post, “[Prokhorov] said that as of January he would own the Nets, and is looking forward to being a very big part of New York." Now if Prokhorov doesn’t have a problem splurging in a $15 bowl of chicken soup, just imagine how much the burgers at the Barclays Center could run you, maybe even more than a hot chocolate in the Bronx.