KIRILENKO Andrew

Say we did not have such a talented basketball player from the time of Alexander Belov. The ease with which Andrei Kirilenko wins one professional peak to another, strikes the imagination. How he achieved such success? What do you like besides basketball? These questions are a young player to answer myself.

- I have a motto: "AIGA". In Tatar is "Forward!", - Said Andrey. - When the Tatars asked: "And when it back?" - They are turned and again: "AIGA".

- But you have something far only forward. Forgotten already, probably, when, and began ...

- Well, why? When a schoolboy. Coaches avoided "obscheobrazovalki" in search of talent, that's gone once Alexey Vasiliev, basketball coach, in my school in St. Petersburg. Saw three towering children, among whom was myself, and invited him to train basketball. Then, in my opinion, I was in fourth grade. A year of secondary school I was transferred to a sports. When the coaches saw that they were not mistaken in me, then sixteen years to hit the sports boarding.

- You already dreamed of being a "great" or play for fun?

- When I was a kid and just started playing basketball, I thought about how to get into some good team. At the beginning of this "dream team" was the St. Petersburg Spartak, CSKA Moscow and then ... So it happened that year played in "Spartacus" and then followed by an invitation from Eremina try his hand at army club. So all dreamed - fulfilled. Now I play the Utah Jazz in the NBA (National Basketball Association). And this is the dream, because the game in the American League I think a significant step forward in my development as a basketball player. Do not think I'm arrogant or zazvezdil ". In general, always very critical to his attitude and I think that, whatever the results I have shown to me far from ideal. Gaming deficiencies weight - and "physics" is not enough, and throw unstable. Therefore, more work and work. So my future in the NBA depends entirely on my own.

- Andrew, by you not give the impression of a closed person, "going in one direction". I remember, right after the Olympics in Sydney, you are so enthusiastically shared their impressions of the Sydney zoo ...

- And now, the impression is not obscured. Imagine, in fact there is not so, as we have in Russia. This is something like a nature reserve. I will not talk about kangaroo, they in Australia, as we have dogs on the street. But I liked the penguins. They are funny, they are many, many, and all the movements that make one another immediately begins to repeat. A long admired his beloved cat family, lions and tigers.

- That is a favorite animal - a cat?

- I really say that? I said that I love the cat family. And that lions, tigers, panthers ...

- If you had the opportunity to start a house pet, it would be ...

- Panther.

- Is it possible?

- You asked, I answered.

- Maybe you believe in otherworldly forces?

- We are all a little superstitious, but my favorite number - 13. This figure is the happiest in my life. Why? Probably each of us has something of the king of darkness.

- For you basketball - Work. But there is something else, a hobby, for example? Or basketball - that's it?

- Why? I love to play computer games, especially if they are strategic. However, sometimes it comes to obsession - sit at the computer and I can not tear myself away from the game. A pro basketball? You know, I have six years or more from him does not rest. In fact, a basketball leaves are at the end of the season, but for some reason I normally have a rest Well you can not even. And so want to go to the sea, soak up somewhere in the sand and not take some time to hand the ball ...

- Basketball and computer games - is love. What, then, dislike?

- I would not say that there is something specific. Just do not like evil. In any form. I do not like people who are somewhat brazen, hamovatye. There I call evil.

- Do you have any drawbacks?

- From the side, of course, know better, but the main drawback to me - I do not like to clean the apartment. My house is not always ideal order. Parents are always blamed for it, my mother scolded. Now that I live alone, no change. Perhaps it will come with time.

- Everybody says you have a great basketball future. And what event you might be able to name the most memorable in your life?

- Probably, when I became an adult. I was eighteen, I woke up this morning, stretched, and thought: "Look at what I have already a big boy!"

Channel: Arguments and Facts