19 ноября 2001, 14:39

Kirilenko block-shots Jordan

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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

  • Congratulations! You played against 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.

  • During the first half Jordan made frequent left-wing attacks, that was near the reserve bench "Jazz". Most likely you watched his actions attentively before appearing on the ground?

  • 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.

  • You did that twice…

  • 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!"

  • I wonder, what are the feelings of a man blocking the most famous basketball player in the world?

  • 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.

 

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