HoopsHype.com Rumors

Ronald Murray has signed with Azovmash (Ukraine). Basket Planet

Ronald Murray, Ukraine 

Kyrylo Fesenko signed with BC Donetsk of Ukraine. iSport

Kyrylo Fesenko, Ukraine 

Leaving his immediate NBA future in doubt, free agent center Kyrylo Fesenko is finalizing a contract agreement with Ukrainian club BC Donetsk, league sources told RealGM. Fesenko’s agent, David Carro, confirmed the deal is close to being signed for Fesenko to end his NBA training to play in Ukraine. RealGM

Free Agency, Kyrylo Fesenko, Ukraine 

Darius Johnson-Odom will start his pro career in Ukraine with Azovmash Mariupol. Yesterday we anticipated the news and today we got another confirmation about the next arrival of the rookie in Ukraine. Johnson-Odom is still with the Lakers at the camp but in the next hours he will be waived and, as free agent, will move to Azovmash. In the club he is going to replace Nemanja Gordic. Sportando

Los Angeles Lakers, Free Agency, Ukraine, Darius Johnson-Odom 

The future of Darius Johnson-Odom will likely be in Ukraine with Azovmash Mariupol. The rookie will be released by the Lakers with whom he is at the camp. Johnson-Odom might replace Nemanja Gordic in the Ukrainian club. Sportando

Los Angeles Lakers, Free Agency, Ukraine, Darius Johnson-Odom 

BC Azovmash has signed Manny Harris. bcazovmash.com.ua

Manny Harris, Ukraine 

Chris Tomasson: Two years ago, Kyrylo Fesenko said he could have been a Chernobyl baby. Fesenko, whose birthplace and hometown is Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine, told me that's a 5-hour drive from where the Chernobyl nuclear disaster occurred 4/26/86. Since Fesenko was born 12/24/86, he told me glad the wind wasn't blowing then from Chernobyl when he was still his mother's womb. "I'd have like three hands and four feet,'' he said at time. When I first saw Fesenko in this series, he said, "I'm hiding my extra arms.'' Sulia

Indiana Pacers, Kyrylo Fesenko, Ukraine 

BC Donetsk is closer to waive Darnell Jackson. Former NBA player didn't perform as expected and the Ukrainian team is on the market looking for a replacement. Donetsk showed interest in Darius Songaila. The Lithuanian is free agent after he left Galatasaray where he has started the season. Another name for the Ukrainian club is Vladan Vukosavljevic of Politekhnika-Halychyna. The player is averaging 18.4ppg and 11.3rpg in 16 games in Superleague. Sportando

Free Agency, Darius Songaila, Darnell Jackson, Ukraine 

Ukrainian team Dnipro made official the signing until the end of the season of Qyntel Woods. The American forward joins the other newcomer in the team, Jerome Moiso. Sportando

Qyntel Woods, Ukraine 

BC Donetsk officially announces the signing of Darnell Jackson. The forward has played three seasons and 138 games in the NBA. In the regular season 2010-11 he wore the jersey of Sacramento Kings averaging 3.2ppg and 1.6rpg. Sportando

Lockout, Darnell Jackson, Ukraine 

Jazz center Kyrylo Fesenko — playing for Mike Fratello’s Ukrainian team at EuroBasket — was trying to body up D.J. Mbenga on the low block when his knee buckled and he fell to the ground in pain. (Follow this link to the video, if you want to see it.) It wasn’t a dirty play, just one of those things, but Fesenko went straight to the ground. Jazz blog SLC Dunk tweets it is a torn ligament and he will be out two months, we’re trying to get another report to confirm this (a report where we don’t need Google translate). This likely would involve surgery, but again we’re trying to find some more details. Fesenko was averaging just under 10 minutes a game for the Ukraine, giving them 5 points and 2 boards a game. NBCSports.com

Utah Jazz, Kyrylo Fesenko, Didier Ilunga-Mbenga, Mike Fratello, Ukraine 

Ukraine, having earned a late ticket into the European basketball championships when FIBA Europe expanded the field from 16 to 24, decided to look abroad for someone to head its challenge. Its federation's president already knew what Fratello could do from personal experience. Sasha Volkov played the first of his three NBA seasons under Fratello's watch in Atlanta, staying in touch even after their paths diverged. When the offer came, Fratello listened intently and became increasingly intrigued. "The attraction was, one, that it was an opportunity to coach a team, which I love. Two, it was an opportunity to coach in an international setting, in a EuroBasket, which I'd never done before," he said. "I've done many clinics in many countries but I've never coached in [an international] competition before." ESPN.com

Coaching, Mike Fratello, Ukraine 

There is no shortage of respect for Fratello among the coaching fraternity here. He was one of the first NBA coaches to regularly cross the Atlantic to trade wisdom with the new breed of European coaches who were eager to learn what they could from the men they had only previously watched, late at night, on TV. "He was the head coach in one of the first camps I attended as a young coach 30 years ago," said Spain coach Sergio Scariolo. "So he was one of my first teachers. I regret I'm not going to see him in Vilnius in the next round." ESPN.com

Coaching, Mike Fratello, Ukraine 

Center Kyrylo Fesenko is reportedly close to signing a contract with professional Ukrainian team Dnipro. But Fesenko's agent, Stu Lash, said Monday that he is unaware of the deal. On the surface, the move would make sense for Fesenko. The 24-year-old is a native of the Ukraine, will compete in the 2011 EuroBasket tournament for his home country and still has personal ties to the region. Fesenko was recently linked to Spanish club Baskonia, though, and he has been pursued by other international teams in the past. Fesenko is also expected to receive attention from NBA teams once the lockout ends and free agency begins. Salt Lake Tribune

Free Agency, Kyrylo Fesenko, Ukraine 

Dnipro announced via official website that the team is in talks with Kyrylo Fesenko for the coming season and an agreement may be reached soon. The Ukrainian big man spent the last four years in NBA with Utah Jazz and is now free agent. Sportando

Free Agency, Kyrylo Fesenko, Lockout, Ukraine, Dnipro 

Ukraine coach Mike Fratello has begun preparing his squad for Eurobasket in Lithuania, by taking them to Klaipeda - where they will play their Group D games. The former Atlanta Hawks and Memphis Grizzlies coach, turned TV analyst has taken the national team to Lithuania's third largest city to begin training camp. Not only will Ukraine train in Klaipeda, but they will also play their warm-up games there too, so that they can grow accustomed to the city situated at the mouth of the Nemunas River. "We go to work," Fratello said. "We put the system in, the offensive system, the defensive system. We try to play different combinations of people together so we can try and find out and get a feel for who the best groups are together and working towards our goal for the future." TalkBasket

Coaching, Mike Fratello, Ukraine 

Former UTEP standout Randy Culpepper has opted for European basketball as opposed to waiting for the NBA to solve its labor issues. Culpepper made what he and his agent Austin Walton called a smart decision late Monday night and signed a pro basketball contract with Ferro-ZNTU, a member of the Ukrainian Superleague. Walton could not disclose the exact terms of the deal due to league rules, but did say it is a one-year contract and worth at least six figures. "I think this is the smartest route," Walton said. "It's something we talked about early on if Randy didn't get drafted. The reality is that there might not be a summer league and no team can commit to any kind of contract." El Paso Times

Free Agency, Ukraine, Randy Culpepper 

(Fesenko) will leave for Ukraine, his native country, today and plans on playing for the national team beginning in late June after rehabbing broken thumb. Deseret News

Utah Jazz, Kyrylo Fesenko, Ukraine 

The only plays Mike Fratello has drawn up lately have been as the Czar of the Telestrator, but that will change this summer. In what may be Fratello’s biggest professional challenge, the Hackensack native agreed to coach the Ukraine National Team in the European Championships in Lithuania. Ukraine has never qualified for the Olympics and is an extreme long shot for the 2012 Games. It didn’t qualify for the last two European Championships and has never finished higher than 13th. Ukraine has had little success in basketball since becoming independent after the dissolution of the Soviet Union 20 years ago. Bergen Record

Coaching, Mike Fratello, Ukraine 

But Fratello, 64, is excited about his first foray into international competition and hopes to help put Ukraine on the basketball map. "I was interested in something new that I’ve never done," said Fratello, an analyst for Nets games on the YES Network and the NBA on TNT. "I just thought at this time in my life, having never had the chance for that opportunity, it was kind of a wonderful challenge to see what you can do. "This program is trying to establish a base, a foundation to eventually [become a power]. They just haven’t had that. It’s been haphazard, hasn’t been run the right way. I think everybody wanted to make a commitment to do this thing the right way." Bergen Record

Coaching, Mike Fratello, Ukraine