Andrei Kirilenko
The Visionary
The future, and what is barely possible, reads round the next corner.
Andrei Kirilenko is The Visionary in the fullest sense, a player who understood himself as proof of concept. The first Russian to anchor an NBA franchise as a genuine All-Star cornerstone, he consciously inhabited that role for a generation watching behind him, insisting that nothing is impossible, you can be there.
“I am very proud to be that person to kind of be a pioneer — not as just who joined the NBA and played a couple of games, but showing that any kid growing up and playing basketball can be an All-Star.”
“I wanted to get a feeling that kids who grew up watching me understand nothing is impossible. You can be there. I was a skinny kid, just running through.”
“In two thousand and eight, I've been awarded by my country to be a flag bearer for the opening ceremony — that's the highest possible honor you can get from your country when you represent it not as basketball, but as your country in sport.”
Knuckleheads with Quentin Richardson & Darius Miles: “Andrei Kirilenko”
LISTEN AT THE SOURCE ↗THE RECORD IS CHECKABLE