FOUL CALL

Brooklyn Nets Owner Funding Lawsuit vs. Russian Doping Whistleblower Grigory Rodchenkov

Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov exposed the Russian doping scandal.

The Russian oligarch who owns the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets is helping to finance a lawsuit that is seeking to delegitimize the whistleblower who helped expose the Russia’s elaborate state-sponsored sports doping program. Billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov is backing a legal action against Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov that claims the whistleblower defamed three Russian biathletes who were stripped of silver medals from the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi after they were linked to the doping scandal. Rodchenkov, the former director of Russia’s national anti-doping laboratory, helped to expose the extent of Russia’s doping program and now lives at an undisclosed location in the United States. James Walden, Rodchenkov’s lawyer, told The New York Times: “This claim has zero chance of surviving a motion to dismiss. It is as credible as the rest of Russia’s lies, so I will gladly defend it.”