"I'm happy to play for the Jazz. I'm just happy," he said. "I hope that I will really help Jazz next season, and I will do all my best to help."

He said he stayed in Utah since the Revue because he felt sure the Jazz would sign him for this season. "Yeah, because they were speaking with my Ukrainian club. There was just deal, some stuff about buyout. So I wasn't worried."

He has spent frugally while in the United States the last 2 1/2 months for predraft workouts with NBA teams and through the draft, Revue and the weeks after, using money he earned from playing professionally for Cherkaski Mavpi in the Ukrainian SuperLeague for three seasons and money that Levien lent him.

Now he is pretty well assured a lucrative NBA salary, pending FIBA/NBA approval, but he's not spending that money in his mind yet like most youngsters would.

Asked what he wants to buy first, Fesenko said, "Nothing. I don't know what thing I'm going to buy. I will rent apartment. Maybe buy some car. That's all. I don't know. I don't want to spend all my money in six weeks."

Fesenko made a big impression on the Salt Lake media his first day of Revue practice last month when he said he hoped to purchase a car for "$3,000 or $4,000." Reporters told him NBA players usually spend far more for their rides, but he answered that he wasn't an NBA player yet and, "I am not really good driver. I need something cheap, that if I get some problems, it wasn't so bad on my soul."

He soon regretted saying that as everyone kept asking him if he'd bought a cheap car yet. He hadn't. He walked and rode the bus around Salt Lake City the last six weeks and sometimes got a ride from friends, Levien said.

While at home with his single mom and brother and sister the next few weeks, Fesenko said he will work hard on conditioning. "Everybody says I have to be in good shape here," he said, aware of Jazz coach Jerry Sloan's first rule for players. "Will run. I like to swim.

"I will not play basketball," he added after having been heavily involved in the sport all summer. He added with a laugh, "I need to miss it."

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E-mail: lham@desnews.com