MOSCOW, March 24. /ITAR-TASS/. Russian billionaire and former presidential candidate Mikhail Prokhorov reiterated on Monday his intention of transferring assets of NBA’s Brooklyn Nets under the Russian jurisdiction.

“I have already stated that I will transfer the basketball club [under the Russian jurisdiction],” Prokhorov told journalists on Monday adding that the move does not contradict NBA’s regulations.

Last summer Prokhorov announced that the US authorities permitted him to transfer the ownership of Nets-related assets under the Russian jurisdiction. The move was viewed by many at that time as Prokhorov’s attempt to comply with the Russian legislature, which bans state officials to have foreign assets. Prokhorov wanted to run for the seat of the Moscow mayor.

This time, however, he said that the transition of the basketball club would offer “an outstanding opportunity to use NBA technologies for the step-by-step development of basketball in Russia.”

The 48-year-old billionaire bought the then New Jersey Nets in 2010 for $200 million and later relocated the club to Brooklyn, which has a large Russian population.

Brooklyn Nets started this season with a poor performance but managed to come back and is currently 5th in its Eastern Conference standings with 37 wins and 31 defeats. Last season, the team finished with a record of 49 wins and 33 defeats, the second-best record in the Atlantic Division.

According to an earlier report from The New York Daily News, bachelor Prokhorov pledged that the team would win the NBA championship by 2015 or he would punish himself by getting married.