Another little nugget from Dave D’Alessandro‘s report while at Prokhorov’s brunch for the media. He wants a coach with NBA experience:
When the subject of a new coach was broached, Prokhorov all but dismissed Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski.
“The new coach must have NBA experience,” Prokhorov said. “Coach K does not have NBA experience.”
This is some pretty big news because everyone was expecting Prokhorov to make a big play for Coach K, but that probably won’t happen now. Also, this takes another name out of play. Ettore Messina is a coach who worked for Prokhorov in t he past when Messina coached the Russian team that Prokhorov owned. He has interviewed for a couple NBA jobs and many people consider him the only international coach who would be able to make the jump from overseas to the NBA. Without NBA experience though, I would be surprised to see Prokhorov go after him now.
