Andrei Kirilenko Decides To Retire

[Alpha_]

Andrei Kirilenko has decided to retire from professional basketball.

Kirilenko wasn't invited to join Russia's squad for EuroBasket 2015.

Kirilenko joined the Utah Jazz in 2001 and was an All-Star in 2004. Kirilenko played for CSKA during the lockout and then returned to the NBA to play for the Minnesota Timberwolves and Brooklyn Nets. Kirilenko was traded to the Philadelphia 76ers this season and he never reported to the team.

Thanks AK47

[mp3]

Had a great career but fell victim to the lockout and was never the same once he returned from playing in Russia.

Always had smoking hot women though!

[Andrew]

Solid NBA career, though he was something of an afterthought the past couple of seasons. I figured he'd go back to playing in Russia if the money/interest wasn't there in the NBA, but perhaps he's taken missing the cut for the national team as a sign it's time to hang it up.

Additionally, one of the best nicknames we've had in the NBA.

[[Q]]

He was actually still pretty good in Minnesota mentoring shved and the others. Once he went to Brooklyn it was over

[NovU]

I still remember him playing with Karl Malone and John Stockton on their last leg. He was definitely one of the most intriguing young men back then but never took his game to the next level unfortunately.

I also remember him being called the best blocker in the league at one point, quite an achievement for a SF. (then I heard his coach didn't like how he gambles on defense to get blocks)

[Andrew]

I think the problem there is that his skillset and approach to the game were ultimately more suited to being the third guy (at best) on the team; the most crucial role player on a team and a borderline All-Star, but not a bona fide franchise player. He didn't take the next step, because that's not the kind of player he was cut out to become. As Q noted, even a couple of years ago in Minnesota, even coming off the bench in a couple of his final seasons with the Jazz, his numbers were respectable in that role.

[NovU]

I guess that turned out to be the case. It's still bizarre and rare to see a player that peaked in first 4 years then gradual downfall from there on.

I personally think he should have been better given so much promises shown in early career. But nonetheless he was a very good player.

[benji]

http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?id=3704410

HOT. THAT'S the best word to describe Masha's music video, bouncy club pop interlaced with melancholy.

So who's the bigger celebrity in Russia? "It could have been me if I didn't stop my career," Masha says cheerfully. When the song "Saharniy" (translation: sugary) was released in 2002, Masha was already in Utah with Andrei for his sophomore season, raising their newborn. It shot to No.1 on MTV Russia, even without her around to promote it. There are no plans for a follow-up: "In any relationship, someone has to give up. I'm the one."

Masha grew up in Moscow, where her father played almost 20 years for the CSKA Moscow basketball team. "A very successful, very handsome man," she says. "And rich." He sent his daughter to an exclusive arts school in London and helped launch her first career. "I think the term is 'it girl,' " Masha says. "I was in all the magazines, like Bazaar and Vogue."

It shows when she gets in front of the camera. After a session with her personal stylist, the 32-year-old gives the photographer a pop-star look. It's who she is, at least in the off-season. "How do you call the life actors live? Let's say, glamour life," Andrei says. In Moscow, the Kirilenkos smile through a blur of red carpets and caviar, champagne for her and milk for him. "Lots of friends: actors, musicians, athletes. Let's say celebrities."

For seven months each year, they leave that life behind, like the working-class Soviets who once volunteered for long stints on Siberian farms to increase their income. "I have seven months when I can be patient," Kirilenko says, "and five months when I can go to nightclubs and nobody will say anything to me."

During those seven months, Masha waits patiently at home. And, yes, she knows what happens on the road. She met Andrei at an event organized by the marketing firm she founded. She knows what can start with a smile in the Miami airport, a knock on a hotel door in Cleveland. The wrong woman, at the wrong time, in the wrong place, with the wrong man. Her man. "Male athletes in this country are extremely attractive," she says. "They get chased by women. It's hard to resist. It's the way men are by nature."

She calls it Andrei's "allowance." Once a year he can have sex with another woman. One night. No affairs, no divided loyalty. She can live with that. It was her idea, offered as a gift.

"Of course, it was a surprise," Andrei says. "I'm not planning to do anything. But she said if you want to do it, you can do it."

Masha doesn't flinch. Her makeup is gone now, revealing earnest eyes and a pouting upper lip. But a ripple of doubt dances at the corner of her twitchy, introspective smile. "When this article comes out, girls will be lining up outside his hotel door," she says. Maybe married women will line up outside her front door brandishing picket signs after they read about her plan to keep her husband from making a mistake. "When I'm aware and I let him do it, it's not cheating."

Andrei says something in Russian, they laugh. "I don't think anyone can substitute him for me," Masha says.

[shadowgrin]

imo he was at least in the top 5 of all time great players in fantasy basketball during his peak.
Kirilenko consistently filled the stat categories like Kobe hits game winners.

[air gordon]

The birthday gift story is one of my favorite nba stories of al time

Ak47 is up there as one of the best fantasy players if the not most unique contributor from the SF position

[GiuseppeRossi47]

I think he should stay in Wolves instead of joining Nets after he had a successful year in Minnesota

[Andrew]

Sounds like it's official.