Nets Owners Mikhail Prokhorov and Jay-Z, Lording Over Madison Square Garden: A Gallery of New York’s Most Awesome Billboard

Hey! Have you seen or heard about this awesome new mural of the New Jersey (soon to be Brooklyn) Nets’ quirky Russian owner Mikhail Prokhorov and smaller-shareholder-but-nonetheless-awesome co-owner Jay-Z? It’s right above Madison Square Garden, where the New York Knicks play! Know what both teams have in common? That’s right, they both want LeBron James to play for them!

Want to see that awesome mural? Here’s a gallery:

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Oh, sorry. That’s just a YouTube’d recording of Jay-Z’s classic, Five-Mic’d album, The Blueprint, which the mural you just looked at is referencing. The song you’re listening to is called “Heart of the City.” It’s a pretty great song. “I’m not lookin’ at you dudes, I’m lookin’ past you,” Jay-Z notes. Indeed!

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Oh, ha, another video. Here’s some of the cast of Promises, Promises on Broadway trying to convince LeBron James to come play basketball here! This is nice, but seriously, will only do any good if (A) LeBron’s a fan of musicals and (B) doesn’t have a thing for Wicked. Yeah, I said it. You should’ve sent Wicked.

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And newsflash! Apparently, the guy who owns the Knicks is angry about this, especially because he can’t do anything about it! Are NBA owners really that prone to bouts of intensely strange and insecure oversensitivity instead of welcoming both the press and the challenge? Apparently so! Either way, the hubris and moxie and aesthetic beauty of this billboard makes it the best one in New York, and also, maybe, the most utilitarian piece of public art since those pianos were put all over the place. I mean, come on: This is truly, truly, truly wonderful. Truly.

[fkamer@villagevoice.com]