Comments about ‘Andrei Kirilenko not joining Russian team in Turkey’

he is not playing for Russia because he knows that he is in a contract year. he knows that he is not getting younger, he knows that he was injured last year and did not respond very well to treatment and missed a bunch of important games, he knows that the Jazz have overpaid him for a couple of years now and if he wants to stay with the Jazz he needs to show value as a player greater than the value of his expiring contract.

in short he is tying to get healthy and have a good first half of the year and better season. If he has a better year and makes the Jazz better. the Jazz have a win win. they would have an expiring contract and a player trying to make a contract. what great trade bait.

even if the Jazz do not trade him by the trading deadline. and keep him through the year and want to resign him they would do so at about 5-7 mill per season. and that would mean the flexibility to improve the team next year.

all good news for Jazz fans

Thanks Andrei for deciding to skip the Worlds. You did great last time playing for Russia, and hopefully your fellow Russians will understand that you did have calf problems at the end of last year and that you want to be fully healthy for the upcoming NBA season.
Just want to say also that I think you are one of the most gifted basketball players I have ever seen, and you are a blast to watch when you roam the court or simply pure when you pass in the front court offense. You and Bird are the only players I have ever seen that could flick a fastball with both hands from 20 feet and no one knew where it was going and it was right on target just about every time. Hope you and Hayward take the time to practice and talk a lot together this year. Have a great year!

AK is a man of great character. He knows that the Jazz have made big commitments to him back when they signed him for max money. Russia will miss his presence, considering that had he decided to play in Worlds, team Russia would have been the favorite to win it all.

As for article, I couldn't quite figure out the sentence where the author suggests that calf injury was somehow connected to his lack of conditioning. What??? I've never seen anyone use conditioning to explain a rupture.