I am a 90s baby so I remember AK-47 at the end of his career when he had the best nickname in the Association and probably the absolute worst haircut. But as I get older, watch highlights and learn more about him, I have begun to realize how excellent he was as a player. I always knew him for his versatility and his 5x5s but I think he was probably the most slept on player of the 2000s.

From his rookie season in 2001 to 2013, he was AWESOME. He had seasons with a 9.2 BPM, 7.9, 6.6, 5.8, 5.2, 5.1, 3.8, 3.7, 3.5, 2.6 AND 2.2. During this span, his teams were 6.3 points better per 100 than when he was off the court and he was 14th among all players in VORP. For his size and position he was a brilliant shot blocker and his highlights indicate he was just tenacious on the defensive end. The 2003-2004 season was an all time carry job. The Jazz got 42 wins and everyone on the team outside of him were terrible. The 04-05 season could have even been greater but he only played 41 games. He averaged 15.6-6.2-3.2-1.6-3.3 on 60 TS%. Just mental. One of the underrated seasons for sure. While that team did have Mehmet Okur and Carlos Boozer, they were pitiful when AK47 was off the court (-9.4 net rating) and solid when he was on the court (+3.3). If healthy that season was shaping up to be an all time carry job too. I literally NEVER hear any mention of him. If he was around in this era, I can't help but think he would be one of the best players in the game and get his accolades and respect. Instead, its generally crickets as to his historical legacy. It is a shame he was on mid or lackluster Jazz teams.

For those that followed the Jazz during the era, were serious about hoops or both, talk to me about Kirilenko. How was he perceived back then? Why did he not get more love? How would he do now? I wanna hear it all.

The NBA locker room, in the past at least, was notoriously homophobic.

John Amaechi, who was a quasi-closeted gay man, had to hear the homophobic banter of teammates for years. His time in Utah was perhaps the toughest.

But during that year, he received an invite to a party from teammate Andrei Kirilenkdo:

"Please come, John. You are welcome to bring your partner, if you have one, someone special to you. Who it is makes no difference to me."

When I read this, I thought it was so touching. It reminded me of the story about Bob Cousy taking a piss off a subway platform with a Black teammated in solidarity when his teammate wasn't allowed to use the same bathroom.

If you are interested in reading more about Amaechi's story, check out this link:

Note from OP: Hi, this is a translation of an article from sports.ru, one of the biggest Russian sports news site. Recently, there was a vote for 100 best athletes in modern Russia history. AK-47 was 11th.

Two perspectives.

At the end of his career, Andrey Kirilenko summed it up like this: “It seems to me that I will be remembered me as the AK-47, that is, a universal balanced unit on the floor. That's all. I always went out and tried my best. Just fought unstoppably for the ball. Never cared about statistics. It picked itself up. I tried to win - period.

About a year ago, in “Took the Ball,” he continued: “It’s not me who should evaluate myself. I rate myself great. I consider myself a great super player, but I'm not the one to judge. People who watch basketball should judge.”

Let's say.

The only thing is that the forward's uneven path suggests completely different interpretations: on both sides of the Pacific Ocean, people look at Kirilenko differently, concentrating on moments that seem more significant for some reason, and then thinking out everything else.

For example, Sports.ru users put him in 11th place in the list of "100 best athletes in the history of Russia."

In America, Kirilenko was at the forefront of the analytical revolution and changed the understanding of basketball

Kirilenko's career in the NBA began very clearly. Now his All-Star appearance has become a vapid "10 minutes, 1 dunk, 1 block," but it actually went a little differently. In the end, after Tim Duncan made a lay-up and brought the West forward, the Russian forward was returned to the floor with the task of fighting back against the opponent's leader - the top scorer of the season, Tracy McGrady. He, seeing Kirilenko in front of him, did not even think to attack: the ball eventually went to the right wing, from where Michael Redd

Bill Simmons choked with delight as he ranked the 23-year-old Kirilenko 13th in the league's most valuable asset column.

"Andrey Kirilenko is a cross between Michael Cooper, Robert Orry, Dennis Rodman and Fred Roberts after 12 cups of coffee."

“Andrey Kirilenko… is already the second best defender in the league (behind Ben Wallace, ahead of Ron Artest)… can create a shot for himself, although he is too unselfish for this… puts out statistics like “19-5-7-8-5” and “10- 12-6-6-5" for eight days... and placed in the starting five of the team "Guys who would be incredibly cool to play together"... What's not to like about it? The only important question is: why has Anna Kournikova not paid attention to him yet?

“Since Scottie Pippen, we haven’t enjoyed someone playing defense like this. If someday we have to play with space spiders to save the planet, will Andrey Kirilenko really not get his minutes in the decisive segment? Wade, LeBron, Kirilenko, Duncan and KG… Can anyone score against this lineup?”

These admirations faded after a few years.

At first, Simmons offered Phoenix to trade Kirilenko for Sean Marion, promising that next to Steve Nash he would go to the All-Star Game every year. Then he included him in the list of the worst contracts in the league. Finally described as "the most disappointing player of the decade", with the possible exception of Vince Carter.

However, as soon as Kirilenko ended his career, raptures returned already in the performance of the authors of the new generation. “The most underrated forward of the 2000s”, “Draymond Green’s predecessor who was unlucky with the era”, “Forward who can be compared to Scottie Pippen and Bobby Jones”, “Player who deserved to be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame”…

Now the consensus on the AK-47 is exactly the same.

It so happened that the rise of Kirilenko in the States coincided with the birth of digital analytics. First, professors at universities, and then people in NBA teams, increasingly began to think that standard protocols could not adequately describe the impact of basketball player N on the game. And just in the middle of the 2000s, they began to offer a variety of mathematical models that would deepen the understanding of basketball and give a digital representation of how a person who does not score many points / rebounds / assists is nevertheless much more significant in terms of the final result.

In 2004, Professor Dan Rosenbaum rolled out the "Adjusted Plus Minus" metric: current MVP Kevin Garnett and top scorer Tracy McGrady were in the first two lines, Andrey Kirilenko was in third.

In 2006, Jeremias Engelmann came up with the “Real Plus Minus” metric: according to it, Andrei Kirilenko has already climbed to second position in the NBA.

In the ranking based on the Basketball Reference "Box plus-minus" metric for 2004-2006, all three of Kirilenko's seasons appear in the top twenty, with the best, the 2004/05 season, in third place, just behind Kevin Garnett's two seasons.

According to the PMIP metric, Kirilenko is 4th in the 2003/04 season (behind KG, Duncan and Ben Wallace), 3rd in the 2004/05 season (behind Manu Ginobili and Duncan) and again third in the 2005/06 season (behind Wade and KG).

And even the subsequent decline in baseline indicators in the middle of the 2000s did not change anything. In terms of the “Real plus minus” metric, Kirilenko ranks 17th overall throughout his career. In terms of Daniel Myers' VORP metric (a player's value compared to the league average), Kirilenko is again 13th over his entire career.

In general, the successfully arrived mathematical calculations forced to pay attention to this seeming and unusual anomaly for the traditional view. It was already clear that Kirilenko had many unique features, but all these metrics made it possible to focus on the main thing: at 22, he burst into the NBA as a full-fledged, albeit non-standard (and incomprehensible) star.

It certainly wasn't the "white Dr. J" he was announced in the draft, but too much of what Kirilenko did was way :

• led the Jazz in the 04/05 season in 12 statistical categories at once;

• Topped the league in blocks with 3.3 per game in 04/05 and was slightly after Marcus Camby in 05/06;

• ;

• ;

• ;

• ;

• By the season 05/06, he went to the line 7.4 times per match, this is the 4th place among all players who scored more than 15 points;

• Registered on a roster of players averaging 8 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals and 2.5 blocks that included the likes of David Robinson, Hakeem Olajuwon and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar;

• ;

• scored 150 steals and 215 blocks in the 04/05 season, followed by 102 steals and 220 blocks in the 05/06 season;

• During the 2007 playoffs, in which Utah reached the conference finals, he casually put out statistical lines like 14-5-4-5-3 or 13-7-4-7-1 or 20-9-5 -6-1, or 15-5-5-3-0, or 21-15-1-0-3;

• Again against the Lakers, he was one of only two players (along with Hakeem Olajuwon) to have at least (14 points, 8 rebounds, 9 assists, 6 steals, 7 blocks);

• ranked second behind Olajuwon in the number of 5 by 5 games: he had 3 of these, and he made two in one week.

You need to understand that all this was at the very start of a career, before reaching the peak, in an era when the league was going through a period of the strongest defensive closeness and when statistics were distributed much less generously than now.

“I have a goal - to become the MVP of this league,” said Kirilenko. “I would also like to receive the ring of champions.”

No, it didn't sound crazy. There was simply never a player with Kirilenko's engine in those three seasons in the NBA. The most surprising thing, perhaps, was that his energy was not limited to one half, as is usually the case: he rushed from one opponent to another on his side, after which again and again, and again burst under the rim - on the other side.

The versatility of AK did not allow it to be defined somehow. He was the best non-center spotter, and he was also entrusted with the guardianship of all the leaders of the time, from Kobe to LeBron. He wielded his retractable arms in traffic and could trade for a player of any role. He waited for the balls in the corner and at the same time became a point forward. Like no one else, he rushed into the fast breaks and at the same time tore apart the positional attack due to bursts and cuts, in which he was also one of the best in the league.

His unusual statistical calculations only showed that in order to understand Kirilenko, it was necessary to multiply all the known components: phenomenal athleticism x basketball intelligence x incredible enthusiasm and activity x unprecedented endurance x thorough analysis of rivals.

The main merit of Kirilenko was that he was able to more or less painlessly carry out Utah during the period of rebuilding. While the Jazz were saying goodbye to the Stockton-Malone era and were just waiting for the Williams-Boozer era, the Russian forward was breaking stereotypes as the first star. During these seasons, Utah's net rating with Kirilenko on the court was 12 (!) points higher than in his absence. And in the 04/05 season, he did what many years later is considered completely incomprehensible: he helped Utah with Matt Harpring, Carlos Arroyo, Gordan Giricek and Raja Bell getting 42 wins, although before the start everyone considered them unequivocal outsiders. His positive influence was evident on both halves: in the 04/05 season, the attack with him was 4 points more effective per 100 possessions, in the 05/06 season – by 6.1, the defense in the 04/05 season was more effective by 2.9 points per 100 possessions, in the 05/06 season - by 3.9. In Utah, Kirilenko received an unusual role for a small forward - a "defensive playmaker", a free hunter, whose game instinct and understanding of basketball are so incredible and recognized that he was issued a license for complete autonomy: he simultaneously led the defense, and he partisaned throughout territory, appearing in unpredictable places to watch for a block, cover with a double team, snatch the ball on the dribble. At the same time, he also tested the patience of Sloan (who went berserk even when his players went out in socks of different colors) with his endless ridiculous hairstyles, also an attribute of an extravagant star.

The problem was that Kirilenko was not only ahead of his time, but also ended up with the most stubborn coach possible. This led to what then seemed to be a full-fledged tragedy.

For mobile "big" who can not be brought under the Procrustean bed of the traditional role, then often there was no adequate place. Talented guys who fell between positions fell out of the league in batches, and the rest had to adapt: Tony Kukoch and Lamar Odom were attached as sixth players, Andre Iguodala, Ron Artest, Gerald Wallace and Viktor Khryapa were used as narrowly specialized small forwards, except that only Sean Marion was lucky, who got into a unique team, and then got lost after an trade from it.

There were three types of basketball in the 2000s: teams that built the game around the dominance of their big ones, teams that left control to one-man hands (from Jason Kidd to Steve Nash, from Kobe Bryant to Vince Carter), and Utah that fell in love with pick-n -roll long before it became mainstream. Kirilenko wasn't a dominant big man, he didn't build himself a superstar-level attack like Paul Pierce or Grant Hill, so there was no doubt for Sloan: he built the best offense of the 90s around pick and roll, he recreated the best offense of the mid-2000s. around pick and roll though.

Kirilenko's feelings about this were the problem of Kirilenko alone.

For AK, in the new-old Jazz offense, of course, there was only this purely limited role of 3&D, which he performed worse than Matt Harpring (at least he knew how to throw). What came as a surprise to him too was that in the 06/07 season he dramatically lost playing time (less than 30 minutes compared to 37 minutes before) and lost significantly in opportunities (from 12 shots in the 03/04 season to 6 shots, the number of free throws also immediately fell by half).

All this disillusionment ended with a terrible scene in training after the first match of the series with Houston in 2007: Kirilenko covered himself with a towel, but all the journalists saw a tear flowing down his cheek and an anguish in his voice.

“I want to play 48 minutes,” he said. “I want to play, I want to be on the court. I am ready to give as much as you need, regardless of the time on the floor ... I will not say that I do everything perfectly, but I do something. It is very difficult to explain, because it all goes on throughout the year. I lost confidence in myself - completely and completely."

The general shock was closed by the paradoxical remark of Masha Lopatova (Kirilenko's wife): “One thing needs to be understood about Andrei: he never gets upset about anything at all. Even I never managed to upset him. So when I saw that, I knew something was very wrong.”

Kirilenko ended up being an important part of the Jazz's 2007 playoff run (the most encouraging of his career). Then he explained his claims again publicly, but in a more constructive way: “Now I feel that I am not progressing as a player. I try, but it doesn't work. I'm not allowed. I do not get the support of the coach and the club. I am convinced that Sloan's methods have a negative effect on me. His main way of motivating players is to instill guilt feelings. Our salaries, our mistakes in games, our actions off the court are always a reason for reproach. I want to play basketball, I want to enjoy it, and not be a robot, a cog in the Sloan system. He demanded the termination of the contract, but in the end he compromised.

And that's where Kirilenko as a potential NBA star ended. Nobody is to blame for flying around the garden - Kirilenko accepted the role of a cog in the Sloan system and, in fact, did not leave himself a chance to try something outside of Utah. Over time, this became an irreparable mistake: in the future, he lost that spark that made him exceptional. He no longer rushed around the zone, trying to snatch the ball on the drib or reach for the throw. Satisfied with the role of the fourth option in the Utah offense. No longer produced unrealistic statistical or visual episodes. He remained part of the league, but kind of faded into the background. Along with the Jazz, who were never able to move the San Antonio/Lakers/Dallas/Phoenix quartet.

Kirilenko spent another 4 years in Utah, but has already died out.

In America, this is explained as a consequence of the numerous injuries associated with a traumatic style. And that is why Andrei Kirilenko is associated there with the image of a misunderstood genius, one of the first universal "big" ones, whose creativity, uniqueness, talent could not be appreciated and applied in his era. Naturally, this all resonates right now - because of the fact that the skills of the AK-47 overlap so well with modernity: and the willingness to invent an unexpected pass, and a brilliant fantasy in quick attacks, and a love of improvisation, and the absence of any selfishness, and willingness to run non-stop, and defense against any role, and early years, not much inferior to Giannis Antetokounmpo in the discharged atmosphere of the modern league ...

Everything in him was eventually suffocated.

In Russia, Kirilenko made the national team the strongest on the continent and explained the difference in mentality

2007 radically changed the career of Andrei Kirilenko, not only because of a nervous breakdown during a landmark series for Utah in the 2000s. 2007 is also, of course, the main victory in his career. It must always be remembered that its main content is this contrast between the feeling of absolute uselessness, write-off, debunking as a star player in the Jazz and equally total superiority on European venues, a feeling of joy, even happiness from basketball and an understanding of one’s own power, which resulted in the recognition as the best European basketball player in 2007.

“I suddenly realized that nothing has changed for me - I still know how to play,” Kirilenko recorded at that moment.

The symbol of this contradiction is a legendary story. Before the final match, no one particularly believed in the Russian team, it had already jumped above its head - it is unlikely that even the players themselves had any hopes, except for the most timid ones. And so the team loaded onto the bus and went to the last match. Internal stress could easily replace an internal combustion engine. And then, halfway through, Masha Lopatova, who always accompanied the leader of the national team at all competitions, suddenly remembered that she had forgotten her accreditation in the hotel room. And here it is an unexpected prioritization: the bus immediately turned around so that Andrei Kirilenko's wife took her pass from the hotel. The victory over the golden generation of the best national team of the continent at their home in Madrid was only an interesting decoration of this amazing story.

A few years later, already at the Final Four in Istanbul, Masha Lopatova wrote about this practice and even then she could not help but oppose the teams of a healthy person and Jerry Sloan's Jazz.

“When the team flies to the Final Four with their wives and families, it's very nice. Not even cute, but right. The main matches of the season, and the closest ones are nearby. And this is practiced not only in the Euroleague. It's the same in the NBA. When families fly to the games with the players. But it all depends on the team. Some clubs don't do this. And in Jerry Sloan's Utah era, it was also frowned upon. He's so old school and was a bit prejudiced towards women. I had to fly with him on another plane and live in another hotel. Jerry treats women like many Russian men. Not typical for Americans. He's actually a tough guy."

The same contrast was echoed in Kirilenko's demarche after the 2007 European Championships: he not only complained about Sloan's methods, but also emphasized the advantages of David Blatt.

“You can’t imagine what happiness it is to win for your country. For this I am incredibly grateful to Blatt. I respect and appreciate Blatt for his ability to organize players in such a way as to use the strongest qualities of each one hundred percent. He is able to motivate the team with a positive approach, he can be quite a tough coach without psychological pressure. He gives everyone the opportunity to feel that he is very important, and that the result of the team depends on him personally, inspires confidence. There are 12 basketball players in the team, and each needs an individual approach. Only in this way can a player demonstrate the result one hundred percent. After all, the coach is not only an organizer, but also a psychologist. Thanks to Blatt for still believing in me after an unsuccessful NBA season and creating the conditions in the team so that I could demonstrate the game at the highest level and bring maximum benefit. In other words, I am ready to play for Russia under the leadership of Blatt with pleasure."

In short, 2007 clearly divided Kirilenko's entire career into two completely different parts: basketball in the national team and then in CSKA brought him real happiness, joy visible from the stands, pleasure from the process itself, basketball in the NBA seemed to be an obligation, not a very favorite job, that he had to endure, although for a lot of money.

Perhaps the most revealing story of recent years in the league was told about Andrei Kirilenko by Channing Frye. Kirilenko is such an obsessed fan of World of Warcraft that he got a tattoo on his entire back - he was hacking for days on end, pumping many heroes in parallel. And one day, Frye noticed that the Russian was still online at 3 am, although the Utah had a game the next day. Frye asked if he would be one hundred percent ready, and received this answer: "Well, yes, most likely."

The attitude towards the team was completely different. And not because it is a team representing the whole country.

Kirilenko made the Russian national team fully his team.

On the one hand, a “team of friends”, where everyone rested together and worked together, where even old veterans were forced to pick up a joystick, where they constantly played each other, and the head coach was called “Saveliy” (because of the resemblance to a movie character - “ and along the road the dead with scythes stand. And silence!").

On the other hand, he became an ideal leader for this team - not a "prima donna" who needs to be dragged behind a piano, but rather an older brother who makes life easier for everyone and sets an example in everything. There he is constantly on the floor, fighting for the ball. Here it rises above the ring, blocking the sky and helping Alexei Savrasenko. Here he trusts the attack to the back, and he swoops in from the back, ready to push the ball in case of a miss.

In Russia, it was somehow traditional to look at basketball as a kind of soccer - a sport that works in a completely different way, even in sports publications it was described similarly, except that in one they kicked the ball, and in the other they shot with their hands. But in the era of Andrei Kirilenko, this seemed to be justified: he, who grew up in the family of a soccer coach, really played basketball much like soccer. Kirilenko - these are short and medium range passes, seemingly optional movement of the ball, breaking in, running in, opening and sheds under the ring. Kirilenko is an egalitarian offense in which personality and statistics don't matter at all, and in which center Sasha Kaun, sniper Vitaly Fridzon, and someone from the bench with long hair can come out on a given day. Kirilenko is a constant movement, actually not quite typical for basketball, creating chaos and confusion on the court as opposed to traditional one-man beats through pick-and-rolls.

“We are a very team nation from a basketball point of view,” he explained himself. – From childhood, we are taught that the most important thing is a team. Because of this, many competitions are held in the mode: pass, pass, pass, if they find a free one, they score. And there are very few guys who take the initiative. And we “humiliate” them for this (in quotation marks): “Oh, we have a single unit.”

Kirilenko says he adores solo players, but throughout his career it felt like this difference in mentality between "us" people who grew up in the Soviet Union and "them" is one of his defining problems. In America, they have always paid attention to how unselfish Kirilenko is, how he always tries to make a pass, how he always cares about the general team movement of the ball and the involvement of everyone, how he does not hesitate to go into the shadows. And there he always remained a black sheep (no pun intended), incomprehensible to others. In the Russian national team, he built his own dream team, where everyone knew that, giving the pass, he would always get the ball back, where everyone was united by one interest and involved in the common process, and where even the only statpadder in the whole country was fiddled with as with a loved one spoiled child.

In this, too, he was an exception, inaccessible to his contemporaries. Except that in this case it was not the future that responded, but the last echo of the Soviet school.

Now, after the appearance of Giannis, Jokic, Doncic and others, after the transformation of the NBA into a non-American league, Andrey Kirilenko has fallen out of the list of 20-25 best European players in history. Solely due to the fact that his career in American basketball came out so vague. Russian fans have never needed advanced analytical models, or grandiose statistics and records, or a selection of photographs with the most amazing experiments on their heads, in order to realize its scale. And without any numbers, and without any Star Games, and without any duels with McGrady, it is obvious that as part of the national team, Kirilenko transformed the landscape around him much more than the greatest Europeans of his time: Dirk Nowitzki, Tony Parker and Pau Gasol.

He lost only to Nowitzki in individual confrontations, with a difference of one point - and even then, due to the fact that the teams crossed paths only once, when Kirilenko's Russia was still looking for itself.

Kirilenko - Gasol - 2-2

Kirilenko - Parker - 1-1

Kirilenko - Nowitzki - 0-1

He lost only to the Gasols with their super-powerful Spain in team results.

Gasol - Euro 2007 silver, Olympic silver 2008 and 2012, Euro 2011 gold

Kirilenko - gold of Euro 2007, bronze of Euro 2011, bronze of the 2012 Olympics.

Parker - Euro 2011 silver, Euro 2005 bronze

Nowitzki - Euro 2005 silver.

Again, the main paradox of Kirilenko is that you can't even single out any significant, historical match from him. Probably, it will be a clash with the Lithuanian national team in the 2007 semi-final, which suddenly turned into a between the leader of Russia and one of the best snipers in European basketball, Ramunas Siskauskas.

This is the only clear exception.

Kirilenko in the national team is just that all-pervading influence on the game, that very unique feeling from basketball. Huge, angular, as if overly shy outside the stadium, inside the rectangle of the site, he turned into his own avatar - a real alien with monstrous wings that help him soar above the basket, with almost invisible because of the sharpness of the cutting scissor hands, pulling the ball out in the crowd, with incredible plasticity and speed for such dimensions, with such an appropriate anime head in this context. He did not make key shots, but he always led his partners to such shots: significant victories are marked by his interceptions, blocks, rebounds on someone else's board, approaches to the line, but they are not particularly noted, because Kirilenko was always present in the background, and not only at key moments, his basketball did not consist of episodes, but was a single stream in which he cut, jumped and fell, clung to the ball with his fingertips, ran for safety, and then returned, rushed from one ring to another, flew away to the stands, passed in the fall ... For all the time Kirilenko was in the national team - if we take out the unsuccessful Olympic tournament of 2008 - the national team lost only 6 times, of which only two times were not in the clutch - both of them were against Spain.

It was a painting of incredible density. It seems that he himself understood this well when he often said that he would like his game to be definitely appreciated in Russia - for this he returned to CSKA during the lockout season and appeared as the most incredible basketball player who was ever been here.

And, probably, because of all this, in Russia the love for Kirilenko is not only less than in America, but there is always an accompanying annoyance mixed with it.

Kirilenko's genius was self-evident, but there was always a shimmering motivation with it. He played for the national team much less than he could, less than Gasol, Parker and Nowitzki played, who, unlike Kirilenko, always had a busy playoff. He became not just the best player in the history of national basketball, but the living embodiment of basketball, but accepted the conditions of Jerry Sloan, resigned himself to a modest, unworthy role. He signed the maximum contract, but from the age of 26 he constantly talked about his readiness to end his career in the near future, languished from his own injuries, and always emphasized how much more important the family is than the game.

Kirilenko is one of the rare athletes who constantly complains. Not only for injuries, but in general, he always repeated: what they do is not easy.

Here, for example, is his quote about five-by-five: “If I saw someone have such a statistical collection, then, of course, I would say that it's cool. It really shows that you play not only in attack or defense, but everywhere. You use all your capabilities on every piece of the site. But, if someone tries, I will immediately warn you: it is very energy-consuming and difficult.”

Yes, everyone saw that Kirilenko burns himself in every episode, that in every match for the national team he gives out reference dedication and a priori demands the same from the rest, that every tournament he attends turns into a heroic campaign. But he himself also suggested and hinted that all this should be double, triple valued precisely at the moment, because this rare phenomenon have a limited shelf life. So it remained not completely clear, either he himself set a limit for this energy for himself, or he really felt how it was being spent (which eventually happened when Andrei Kirilenko unexpectedly ended as a basketball player).

It was not enough for the marathon distance of NBA basketball, only for the bright sprints of short international tournaments.

The Russian national team under Kirilenko has become the main team of the country. Not only because it achieved unprecedented results for the country in the second most popular sport in the world, but also because it instantly won the heart of any neutral fan - by the way it fought until the last seconds, by the way it regularly saved herself in deadly situations , the fact that it constantly challenged star opponents and often upset them.

And the joy of each victory - for those who watched carefully - turned out to be even sharper, because everything - and, above all, the central actor - reminded that the golden era of Russian basketball was about to end.

totaled 3 steals and 4 blocks last night against the Nuggets.

Source:

I'm not sure anyone is catching Olajuwon...

When I did my , another redditor in the comments asked if I was the guy he had recently played online. Let me tell you this: If you play me online, you’re getting a win. It’s not that I’m that bad at 2K, but I just can’t get into using “meta” players. Even when power creep takes over and any PG shorter than 6’5” becomes unusable, I still find myself throwing Allen Iverson out at the 2. I’m not expecting to win online- or sometimes even offline. I’m just looking to play with the of my lifetime and play him at the position he played when I worshiped him as a middle schooler. I understand that MyTeam is a fantasy mode, but to me, the fantasy is that I can have a lineup of:

Pistol Pete

Allen Iverson

Andrei Kirilenko

PJ Tucker

And Shaq

and see them play the way they might play if it were possible. I like these players, but the limitations to a lineup like this are pretty obvious: Both Maravich and Iverson were ball-dominant guards, Shaq needed his touches on the block, and PJ Tucker would go mad upon realizing that the fabric of reality has torn and that God is nothing but a lie. However, Andrei Kirilenko could really slot into any lineup and find a role that would improve the result of the collective. He was a defender who could guard any position, score inside and out, and he could . Had it not been for injuries, indifference, and some terrible career choices, he’d probably be a HOF candidate. He was a supremely weird player, which is why I desperately needed to post about him to Strangers On The Internet.

Let’s start with the nickname. AK-47 (a nod to his initials, nationality, and jersey number) was actually from the same town as Mikhail Kalashnikov, the inventor of the famous assault rifle. His hometown of Izhevsk is far better known as being a munitions manufacturing hub for Russia than it is for producing basketball players. Kirilenko looked like he himself was built in a factory, standing 6’9” with a 7’4” wingspan. Had he played in an era where his , we’d remember Kirilenko as an all-time Weird Body Guy. His proportions were otherworldly, his facial features were all sharp angles, and his haircut made him look like a lesbian Stretch Armstrong. He was basketball’s Baba Yaga, which would be a lazy comparison based on stereotypes about the Russian people if it wasn’t also true.

Kirilenko started his pro career as a 16 year old for Spartak St. Petersburg, becoming the youngest player in the history of the Russian Superleague. He moved on to CSKA Moscow the next season, where he’d remain for the next three years. CSKA is the most dominant athletic program in Russia and it isn’t particularly close. They had won seven consecutive Superleague titles prior to Kirilenko’s arrival and another two with him on the roster. I also mention that sports in Russia are prone to the same , and that CSKA is better known for being the Red Army team. They’re sort of like the New York Yankees if the Yankees were actually founded by the Union army after the Civil War. Whether games were rigged or not, Kirilenko was a machine in Europe. He one recorded a triple-double with 13 points, 11 rebounds, and 10 steals in a Euroleague game. He also won the Superleague dunk contest one year, showing some flash to go along with his reputation as a gritty, tireless defender. Utah took him with the 24th pick in the 1999 draft, nine picks behind .

I need to pause on Kirilenko to acknowledge just how bizarre the 1999 draft turned out. first round. Scattered in with players from traditional blue-blood NCAA programs are names from places like Texas State, Augsburg College, and Barton County Community College. Jonathan Bender and Leon Smith were selected out of high school while Kirilenko and Weis came from Europe. Elton Brand was the prototypical power forward of that time, playing with his back to the basket and feasting on offensive rebounds. Selected right after him was Steve Francis, a point guard with flubber on his feet who cried tears of sorrow when Vancouver selected him with the #2 pick. There are relics of the past (High schoolers, Duke players who barely stayed in the league, giant Whites who existed only to foul Shaq six times) and prime examples of modern basketball (Europeans, versatile tweeners like Shawn Marion, loveable morons like ). And of course, there’s Weis: a 7’2” center who never played a second of NBA basketball despite being drafted 15th overall.

The draft was somewhat fitting for where the league was at the time. Michael Jordan had just stepped away from the Bulls and the NBA had just ended a lockout-shortened season.The league was going through some growing pains, and by the time Kirilenko joined the Jazz in 2001, the Stockton-Malone era was coming to a close as well. After two years as third option, Kirilenko led this in scoring and made the All Star game. He also basically was Utah’s defense, leading the team in both blocks per game and steals per game. Two of his three 5x5s (at least 5 points, assists, steals, blocks, and rebounds in a game) came during this season, placing his name on a very short list of players to ever accomplish that feat. At the time, it was just him, Hakeem Olajuwan, and David Robinson.

Aside from the numbers, it’s tough to fully explain exactly why Kirilenko was such a great defender at this point in his career. Most of the defensive specialists we think of in today’s NBA are either rim protectors that look to help off their man or are on-ball defenders who live to make life hell for the superstars on the other team. Kirilenko could fill both of those roles, but he also thrived playing . He had every tool you could want defensively and had the reflexes and awareness to know exactly when to use those tools. , but he talks a bit about being aware of the shot clock and how it changes his approach to helpside defense.Offensively, he was a serviceable enough shooter, a dynamic passer, and a skilled finisher that could do a little bit of everything depending on the situation. You could drop 03-04 Kirilenko on to basically any team in the last 50 years and he would have fit right in.

Then he got . A of , actually. When he broke his wrist against the Wizards in 2005, he still did enough to qualify as the league leader in per game. The Jazz improved over the 2000s, but by 06-07, Kirilenko was barely an option for them . The 06-07 Jazz are a great You Had To Be There team. Mehmet Okur was a skilled stretch 4 back when that was a novelty, Deron Williams was a better version of Chris Paul (while still on his rookie deal!), and Carlos Boozer was almost good enough to make me write something positive about a Duke player. The Jazz sort of took a MyTeam approach to building this roster though. They didn’t so much as build around Kirilenko as they just assembled talent that could win in the regular season. They didn’t have much of an identity in terms of their style of play, but they did win games. Kirilenko lost touches to everyone including Matt Harpring (who to be fair, was a decent scorer) and eventually . Unlike in MyTeam, Kirilenko had feelings and those feelings were hurt. He was tired of carrying the team on the defensive end of the court and being the sixth option in the offense. Your high school basketball coach said that defense is about attitude, and I think this is where Kirilenko just started to care a little bit less. He was still talented enough to be a good contributor- and he did dramatically improve his shooting the very next season- but there were some cracks .

After a lockout year with CSKA Moscow, Kirilenko signed with Minnesota in hopes of a fresh start. He was fine, but honestly, it isn’t a season that really feels worth writing about. I only mention it because at the end of the season, he opted out of the last year of his contract- declining $10M- to sign with the Nets for about $6M over two seasons. For point of reference, this was a summer in which Andrew Bynum signed a $25M, two year deal with the Cavs. The assumption is that Kirilenko’s connection to former CSKA booster, Russian oligarch, and owner of the Nets probably had a lot to do with it. Kirilenko never finished his contract with the Nets, taking a leave of absence at the beginning of the 14-15 season for personal reasons. He was traded to Philadelphia, was fined for never reporting, and went back to CSKA to finish his pro career.

Hockey fans know better than most that Russian athletes are stereotyped as being selfish, lazy quitters who only perform when they get their way. was famous for perpetuating this line of thinking. Kirilenko’s career might have looked a lot more different if he would have willingly accepted a smaller offensive role with a contender. Ron Artest did this later in his career, signing with the Lakers, repairing his image after the Malice at The Palace, and getting a ring. Kirilenko was far from lazy on the court, but there were rumors that he was and neglected sleep in favor of the game. He was probably also enabled to be a bit more selfish by his wife, who famously allowed him to sleep with one other because she didn’t feel like fighting it. Whatever the reasons were for his decline, none of them matter in MyTeam. You can give Kirilenko his moment in the sun, dominating on defense and supplementing on offense as he might have done on a contender. If your team is really dog shit, he can be your leading scorer. Whatever you choose to do with the virtual version, he probably could have done it in real life too.

Happy grinding. Let the AK spray.

A 5x5 games is one where a player records at least 5 points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks, the last two obviously being the hardest ones to achieve.

Kirilenko also did it a 3rd time in 2006. Him and Olajuwon are the only player to do it more than once (6 for Hakeem).

Records are incomplete since blocks and steals were not always formally tracked. It is likely Chamberlain and Russell had their fair share of 5x5 games.

For me it's actually an interesting comparison.

Yes Draymond won 3 rings, but if we just look at them individually, who do you think is the better Player? I actually think it's pretty close, especially AK47 was always extremely underrated imo