Prior to the start of the official training camp for the Ukraine National Team we invited all prospective players to work out with some of the coaches in order to get a head start on conditioning and to get familiar with the various drills we run. Nets full-time strength and conditioning coach Rich Dalatri came on board to help our players with skills development and to get them in shape for tournament competition. Denis Zhuravlev, a former player and the head coach of Dnipro in the Ukrainian pro league, is doing double duty as assistant coach and team interpreter. We had a great turnout. On a given day six to eight guys showed up for the week of voluntary sessions that took place in Kiev and Odessa.
Ukraine and The Czar
July 14 by Leave a Comment
Video coordinator Daisuke Yoshimoto aka Dice was the first member of our coaching staff to arrive in Kiev. We visited three potential practice facilities in order to determine which would be the best for our workouts with the Ukraine National Team members scheduled to arrive this week. After finishing up some more work on the playbook we had dinner at a great Japanese restaurant named San Tori in honor of Dice’s arrival.
We set up at the hotel restaurant for Tuesday’s first team meeting. That evening Ukrainian basketball player Oleksiy Pecherov, who played with AJ Milano in Italy this past season, dropped by the Goodman Steak House to say hello. Afterwards we took a stroll through Independence Square (Maidan Nezalezhnosti), the city’s central plaza and a hub of public political activity in Kiev. Dice snapped a picture of me in front of the towering monument to the protecting Slavic goddess Berehynia, which was erected in 2001.
Bulls assistant coach Ed Pinckney and Knicks assistant coach Kenny Atkinson arrived the following day. A veteran of the NBA, Pinckney helped coach Chicago to the best record in the East this year and famously led the Villanova Wildcats to the NCAA title over the heavily favored Hoyas in 1985. Atkinson played professionally in Italy, France, Germany and Spain from 1991 to 2004 and brings his invaluable international experience to our bench.
Ukraine and The Czar
July 11 by Leave a Comment
On my second day in Kiev I woke up to thousands of protesters rallying outside the Verkhovna Rada building prior to the parliamentary vote on a pension reform bill, which wound up passing. That afternoon Sasha Volkov and I took a private plane from Kiev to Odessa so we could watch the Ukraine Under-25 National Team practice. Later we found an Italian restaurant for dinner, so I felt at home right away.
On Friday we had two workout sessions with six of the Ukraine National Team players who joined us in Odessa to start getting ready for the upcoming training camp. We caught another Under-25 practice before flying out to Crimea for Saturday’s celebration of President Viktor Yanukovych’s 61st birthday.
The following morning I woke up and drove from the resort town Alushta to President Yanukovych’s summer home in Foros along with Sasha Volkov, Sasha Larin, Slava Medvedenko and the captain of our Ukraine National Team Sergei Lischuk. We had the honor of meeting President Yanukovych and presented him with a birthday gift. Before catching our return flight to Odessa we made another stop to watch Sasha Volkov’s daughter Alexandra practice at the rhythmic gymnastics training camp. She is only twelve years old and already stands 5’9” tall – wow! It was evident that Alexandra inherited her father’s athleticism and is going to be something special.
Afterwards we flew back to Odessa to watch the Under-25 Team practice again. We also had an opportunity to take in some of the local sites before returning to Kiev. We visited the famous Potemkin Stairs (officially known today as the Primorsky Stairs), which were originally constructed from 1837–1841 and are now comprised of 192 stairs with ten landings. Considered a formal entrance into the city, the steps were made famous in Sergei Eisenstein’s 1925 silent film The Battleship Potemkin. I also got a photo with Ivan Martos’s statue of Duc de Richelieu, who served as Odessa’s governor between 1803–1814 and is considered one of the city’s founding fathers.
On Sunday I slept in and grabbed a late brunch with Sasha Larin and his son Zjenya, an outstanding young man who just came home after studying abroad in Boston, MA for six weeks. After brunch I returned to the hotel to set up a new flat screen and DVD player in our meeting room in order to prepare for the arrival of my assistant coaches. Then I caught a 5:00 PM mass in Polish since I had missed the earlier service that was in English. When mass ended I walked for about an hour back to my hotel, showered and joined Sasha Volkov for dinner at his neighbors’ home. By the end of our food and wine-filled evening I was ready to turn in, but had to spend some time working on the team playbook before bed.
Ukraine and The Czar
July 7 by Leave a Comment
Here’s a look at me getting suited up in blue and yellow for my new role as head coach of the Ukraine National Team.
On The Road with Mike
July 6 by 1 Comment
I landed in Kiev, Ukraine at noon today to begin preparations for the 2011 European Championships. By chance I met Ukrainian rock star Svyatoslav “Slava” Vakarchuk on my flight to Kiev. The lead singer for the band Okean Elzy is one of the most successful musicians in the country.
Turns out Vakarchuk is also a big basketball fan and likes to play pickup games with Sasha Volkov, a former player of mine on the Atlanta Hawks and the current President of the Ukraine Basketball Federation.
After checking in to my hotel, I went to get fitted for practice gear. Then I had a little free time to unpack and take a nap before dinner. We ate at a very nice Italian restaurant and turned in early to rest up for our big day tomorrow as we will fly out to see the Ukraine Under-25 National Team practice near Odessa.
