Well-forgotten old

Still, it’s a tremendous feeling – to play shoulder to shoulder with teammates who you have every reason to call your friends. It’s been more than two weeks since I’ve started practicing with my new-old team. It’s super! Hi everyone!

All in all, right now it feels as if I’ve never left Khimki. I still drive the same roads to practices, I enter the same locker room, I step on the same hardwood that I know very well and I meet people there who I know very well…

Sometimes this feeling seems a bit strange to me. As if NBA was just a dream. And now I woke up. But then I see another piece of news about the lockout and it instantly reminds me of, so to say, the essence of my existence.

Alla and me have already made ourselves at home in Khimki during the summer. But it turned out we’re still not ready for the winter yet. It gets cold outside, and we don’t have any warm clothes at our apartment. Really, I feel myself like an import player! Don’t you think? Yeah, that’s what I’m saying – I’m thinking about the freezing weather and buying some proper clothes.

It’s just lockout that upset our plans. One time it’s about the season to start on time, and then it’s not. Then they say the talks will last for half a year, then that the whole season will be cancelled… So here we are guessing whether we should bring our warm clothes here or that we could get along with what we buy there. It seems that we’ll be bringing it, after all.

I feel completely comfortable on the team already. I’ve learned every set play; I got to know and made friends with the guys who I didn’t know before. And right now I can say that we have an amazing atmosphere in our locker room! I have also switched from American basketball to European almost completely. There are some finer points, of course, which still require some extra attention – it’s not automatic yet. Working the screens, for example. Then I will foul less.

All in all, I feel normal physically. But emotionally… It seems like I can do anything almost with my eyes closed (this time it is automatic). But inside, there’s emptiness. A basketball devastation. There’s a colossal mental fatigue after the Eurobasket. And only now, in this new atmosphere and setting, national team players start to ‘come alive’ little by little.

If you are waiting for me to tell you about the Euroleague qualifiers in Charleroi [who defeated Mozgov’s BC Khimki in Euroleague qualifiers – Sports.ru] – then, don’t wait. It’s already a past thing for our club. It happened the way it did, so there’s no point talking about it now. I mean everything was already said and clarified not once. And not even twice.

And today a new phase of the tournament starts for us. A new one, with a new set of goals. It’s clear that on paper it can’t be done, but inside you want to start it from scratch, and make new history. The only thing I remember about Charleroi is warm weather and… a strange arena, to say the least, where the court was covered with some fog.

Also, for example, during the second game our locker room was located… outside, inside a trailer. It had all the service, but it still was very much like a construction trailer. And we made our way to the arena through a suspended tent.

And lastly, I say hi to Kayumych [one of the blog’s readers who gave him a hat as a present – Sports.ru]! Just like you asked…

Translated by Alexander Chernykh