Kirilenko block-shots Jordan
Russian basketball player Andrey Kirilenko gives exclusive interview to SE
correspondent Pavel OSIPOV in the Hayatt Regency hotel, Milwaukee. This was his
first match against the NBA star Michael Jordan |
|
Yes, that's great. Although I must confess that I liked Wince Carter and
Kobe Bryant from Lakers which Utah has played with, more. Jordan is 38-year
old, he is slower now. Of course I wanted to play face to face with him, but
Jerry Stone (Utah's chief coach. - P.O.) wasn't planning that.
|
|
When Jordan began to beat Lewis I thought: "That's the beginning!" Jordan
still has his soft manner of play and a huge arsenal of tricks. Having
"swung" Lewis from side to side he easily avoided response. His technique is
fantastic: he shows the move direction with anything - leg, hand, head, and
moves then to the opposite direction. His main trick is to disbalance the
counterpart. His only name paralyses them. But when Lewis resisted the
"magic of Jordan" the latter missed his aims. On the whole I understood that
Jordan's shots could be blocked.
|
|
The first block-shot was muddled a bit: Jordan approached the basket, a
bunch of our players ran towards him, and I was the luckiest. But the second
block-shot appeared not only beautiful but important too - the play was
about to end. I haven't seen the moment of throwing, but felt it. I cried:
"Ball!" and either Mallown or Marshall caught up the ball. By the way, when
later that evening the match Washington-Utah was broadcast overall the USA the
commentator cried there: "That's the block-shot to Michael Jordan!"
|
|
Before the match I talked to my friends from Saint Petersburg, to Kolya
Padius, who played for CSKA, and they all told me one thing: it doesn't
matter how I will conduct the match, what matters is to outdo Jordan. And
when that happened I thought: "Finally!". It was so hard to do that when you
are not playing directly against him. The players from "Washington" give him
the ball and ran away, and I had only to wait for the moment to come - to
run in and secure the partner.
|
RSS