By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
Andrei Kirilenko all but confirmed Eurohoops’ report about his return to CSKA Moscow by speaking to Russian newspaper “Sport-Express”. Despite reports about the opposite, he stated that he is ready to return to action.
As he said: “If I was finished, I wouldn’t do nothing now and I wouldn’t be ready to sign with a new team. I believe I can still play on the highest level and if I feel that I can’t or that I don’t want to anymore, I will stop the same moment and I will not regret it at all. It’s not only about money, there’s has to be also a motive and a bond. In Minessota and in Utah I had that, but not in Philadelphia. I never understood why the Sixers kept me. For them it was like throwing money down the drain”.
As he explained, he was just not a good match with the Sixers: “After my trade to Philadelphia, I didn’t hear nothing from them for two weeks. That was a big surprise for me. I understood that I will not play there and that they would release me. They didn’t asked me to do any medical exams and of course I wasn’t paid, because I didn’t want to take money that I haven’t worked for. And suddenly in the middle of December, the Sixers changed their mind and asked me to report for games, something that was impossible. I never had a dispute with the Sixers, but my presence there was just a formality”.