By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
Ukraine is in the middle of a political crisis, the situation in the borders with Russia is tense and the eyes of the world are fixed in this part of eastern Europe. Meanwhile, foreign basketball players are leaving the country in a mass exodus and only the three top teams of the Ukrainian Superleague are unaffected.
At this point only Budivelnyk, Khimik (Eurocup participants) and BC Donetsk (VTB League) don’t have any major roster changes and Eurohoops with the help of Oleksandr Proshuta of iSport.ua presents you with the list of players who have already left for other countries, or they are on the process of finding a new destination. It has to be noted that in some cases there are also financial issues and not only security concerns, however the political situation is playing a huge part in many players’ decisions and 20 of them are ready to flee or already left.
That’s why teams like Azovmash, Ferro-ZNTU, BC Kiev and Cherkassy will finish the season having only Ukrainian players in their roster. Azovmash lost Coleman Collins who is practicing with Mega Vizura in Serbia, while Daniel Kickert, Marcus Ginyard and Terrell Stoglin are looking for new clubs and will be released soon. Ferro lost Marshawn Powel (photo) who moved to Azovmash but was released after one week, Anthony Marshall to Hapoel Tel Aviv and the front line duo of Jake O’Brien and LaRon Dandy are on the exit door. Georgian Georgi Tsintsadze left Donetsk for Champville of Lebanon and Cherkassy will be missing five players, Ivars Timermanis who returned to Latvia, Ronald Moore who moved to Italian Caserta, Terry Smith, Jason Washburn and Jamaal Boykin who stays with the club while he searches for a new team. Eugene Lawrence left Hoverla for Telekom Bonn in Germany, Ksystof Subarga of MBC Mykolaiv is about to leave for Poland, Donald Sims of Dnipro-Azot ended up in Marinos of Venezuela and BC Kiev will continue the season without Lee Humphrey (he signed in Alba Fehervar, Hungary), Mike Davis and Dominique Coleman.
The situation makes the trio of Budivelnyk, Khimik and BC Donetsk huge favorites for the play offs and we hope that basketball season will be continued and finished, because if there’s place for professional basketball in the country, that would mean that everything else is at least bearable…