Vladimir Putin and Barack Obama walk into a basketball arena. It sounds like the start of a joke, but it's actually Mikhail Prokhorov's dream guests for a basketball game.
In a Q&A with GQ, the Brooklyn Nets owner sidestepped a question of whether he could beat either Putin or Obama in a game of one-on-one. Instead, he said his true desire is to take in a basketball game with each of them at his side.
"I would prefer to have both of them join me in my box rooting for the same team, the Brooklyn Nets," Prokhorov says. "That's kind of a dream of mine."
Dreams are for dreaming. But if he thinks there's any remote possibility of this get-together happening, he's gone too heavy on the vodkas. U.S.-Russia relations aren't in great shape, and they're a long, long ways away from Putin flying around the world to watch an NBA game with the POTUS.
Other interesting tidbits include Prokhorov's timetable for a Nets championship. After bursting into the NBA and promising a championship within five years -- and failing to even reach the Eastern Conference Finals during that timeframe -- Prokhorov has tempered both his wild salary spending and his expectations.
"The sooner the better," he tells GQ. "Beyond that, it really depends on us staying healthy and the chemistry of the team, which we'll soon see."
Best of all is his advice on handling women. The 50-year-old bachelor lives by a simple credo:
"Women are meant to be loved, not understood."
