Plenty of things have been said about Andrei Kirilenko’s decision to sign with the Nets for a below-market value deal.
And while most of those things have been accusations of something nefarious on the part of the Nets due to the relationship between the long-time relationship between Kirilenko and Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov – accusations that, if you take just a couple of minutes to look at them, can quickly be proven baseless, as I have documented previously here – there are several other positive reasons to factor into that equation that helped tip the scales in the Nets’ favor.
Beyond the fact that the Nets present Kirilenko with, as he put it on a conference call with reporters Thursday, the first chance of his career to enter a season as part of a true contender for an NBA title, Kirilenko said that he’s excited about being able to play in New York, which is home to a significant Russian population – particularly in Brooklyn’s Brighton Beach.
“It’s a huge factor,” Kirilenko said of the significant Russian presence in New York. “It kind of reminds me of playing at home. During the lockout year I played back in Moscow and I felt so great having all my Russian friends and the fans, everyone speaks Russian, and it makes you feel like you’re home. Nothing against America, I love being in America, but it’s like a little extra bonus to make you feel like you’re at home.
“We have loved to try New York for a long time, but I was never in the situation to, and now it’s a great situation to try it. There’s about a million and a half Russian citizens living in Brighton Beach, maybe more, and I think it’s going to be great if we can bring a lot of them to the basketball action and see their reaction.”
As for the conspiracy theories that have surrounded Kirilenko’s signing with the Nets, he did his best to dispel them Thursday. To the biggest question he’s received about signing with the Nets – why did he decide to opt-out of a $10 million contract with Minnesota, only to wind up signing for a little more than $3 million with the Nets – his answer was frank: the Timberwolves changed their front office, replacing David Kahn as general manager with Flip Saunders, and chose to go in another direction.
“To be honest, I opted out of my deal not because I wanted to sign with the Nets,” he said. “At that time, I was feeling that I wanted to be in Minnesota for a long time, but as you know, there was some change in Minnesota. I am really respectful of Flip Saunders, and I respect his decision that he decided not to sign me for a long time.
“I can’t do anything with that, and that kind of opened up all my options, so I started looking at other teams and kind of comparing situations.”
Kirilenko also added that there’s nothing he can do about people wondering how the Nets signed him.
“I have been in situations during my career where rumors happen that you’re going to get traded, and different kinds of stories in the media, so I can’t do anything with what people think. I’m going with the facts. You can’t change it, and I can’t control it.”
tbontemps@nypost.com