The Nets "do not own the Internet domain name Nets.com," and New Mexico resident Jane Hill is the "person behind one of the biggest mysteries" in team history, according to Andrew Keh of the N.Y. TIMES. Hill has been "playing a yearslong joke on the team’s fans," and she "wants the Nets, or someone, to buy Nets.com." However, the team "has strongly rejected" the $5M price tag Hill put on the domain name. Hill in '96 "paid $20,000 to acquire 500 subscribers from an Internet provider that was leaving the industry, and Nets.com happened to be the domain associated with it." When she heard the Nets were moving to Brooklyn, she thought it would be "a good time to ask her lawyer to make them an offer." When the team "declined, Hill was hardly deterred." Hill: "We were determined not to be malicious in any way, but we did want to get a little bit of attention." Keh notes she "got plenty of attention with the first prank website," which featured a photo of Mavericks Owner Mark Cuban and the banner: "Looking for the New Jersey Nets? Looking for the Brooklyn Nets? They’re not here ... but they SHOULD be!" At the bottom of the page was a message "written in Russian that translated roughly to 'Mikhail, are you watching? Vilena wants to know.'" Vilena was the "name of a woman involved in an incident in 2007" in which Nets Owner Mikahil Prokhorov was "questioned in a prostitution inquiry in France." Hill said that Vilena "was simply the name of a Russian woman in her accounting department who had helped type the message." The Hills "remain confident that they can cash in on Nets.com in the seven-figure range" (N.Y. TIMES, 11/12).
