Former Jazz player Kyrylo Fesenko signed for 2022-23 with Kuwaiti team Al-Nasr SC.
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Kyrylo Fesenko
Position: -
Born: 12/24/86
Height: 7-0 / 2.13
Weight:235 lbs. / 106.6 kg.
Earnings: $3,517,500 ($4,837,062*)
Born: 12/24/86
Height: 7-0 / 2.13
Weight:235 lbs. / 106.6 kg.
Earnings: $3,517,500 ($4,837,062*)
Ukranian Kyrylo Fesenko, the normally extremely jovial former Utah Jazz player, is about midway through a phone interview on the Russian invasion of his home country. Suddenly, he turns the tables. He starts asking the questions. “Do you know where is the closest bomb shelter for you?”
I do not. Neither did Fesenko’s family, living in Dnipro, Ukraine, until last week. “Do you know what to do when you hear the sound of an airstrike alarm?” I absolutely do not. And again, neither did Fesenko’s family until last week. “For my mom, for my stepfather, it is a new normal,” Fesenko says. “They are basically running back and forth to the bomb shelter every time that happens.”
Fesenko has been known for his relentless expression of positivity for his whole life — it’s the reason he’s beloved by Jazz fans. But the terror he’s seen on the news, the trauma he’s heard from those he loves, and the sheer senselessness of what’s going on; well, you can tell it’s affecting him.
For example, Fesenko has numerous Russian contacts, thanks to his time playing in Russia and its basketball league. From a local perspective, he overlapped with teammate Andrei Kirilenko for all four of the Ukrainian’s years in Utah. But at the moment, he’s shutting them all out. “The level of frustration and hatred in my heart right now is too high. From being civil and reasonable human being I am, I cannot speak with Russian people at this moment right now,” Fesenko said.
He continues, forcefully. You can hear it in his voice — he’s grappling with this new emotion: anger. “I need somebody to blame. I blame Russia. Yeah, of course, I blame most of all (Russian president Vladimir) Putin. But I also blame the people who are silent. The influencers who did not even say anything, I blame. I blame people for letting this bloody dictator to run freely this country into the ground. Right now, Russia is getting economically killed. I am not sure they’re going to recover from this hole for another 15-20 years.
Ryan McDonald: Kyrylo Fesenko on IG
