Brandishing AK-47’s win to make a point

Andrei Kirilenko, known as AK-47 for his initials and jersey number during his 13 seasons in the NBA, began a fresh career recently.

After retiring from the league in June, Kirilenko was elected czar of Russian basketball two months later, making him more than the poster boy of his country’s love for the sport.

Born in Izhevsk, Russia, the 34-year old AK-47 has his work cut out for him while starting reforms and restoring his organization’s tattered image in the eyes of Fiba.

The sport’s governing body suspended the Russian Basketball Federation in July from international tournaments because of internal strife following a contested election. A court order for new polls led to Kirilenko being chosen federation president.

This early in his term, the 6-foot-9 former NBA forward seems to be working his magic as a national basketball executive already.

His last-minute appeal has softened Fiba’s tough stand against the Russian federation, allowing its men’s team to play in the European championships now underway to choose the continent’s entrants to next year’s Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

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AK-47 and his new job drew the attention of four-time PBA Most Valuable Player Ramon Fernandez who hopes that “the coming of Kirilenko would enlighten Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas somehow.”

Fernandez bats for a former player to head the SBP when the right time comes and there are several who fit the bill, he says in an e-mail.

Ex-players have become familiar with situations on the court, and have gained instincts “from those experiences,” that would come in handy when they become leaders off it, according to Fernandez.

Fernandez has nothing against business tycoon Manny V. Pangilinan as SBP president.

Sought by the media for his candid remarks because he is not a sycophant—sipsip to basketball honchos—Fernandez said it’s the people around MVP that gets his goat.

A member of several national teams, Fernandez notes that “up to today, I don’t see a clear direction … with regards to an honest to goodness basketball program.”

“Using the PBA and naturalizing players are fine” in the short term, he said, but such moves “should be followed by a grassroots … and long-term program.”

The man called “El Presidente” for his dominant presence in the PBA and as commissioner of the defunct Metropolitan Basketball Association is aware that the challenges facing Kirilenko ring a bell in today’s local basketball environment.

Like Kirilenko’s national sports association, the SBP is choosing the national team to the Fiba Asia championship in Hunan, China, later this month from among a limited number of aspirants—slim pickings when there should be more.

Both NSAs are focusing the selection only on professional players and are not seeing a need to broaden recruitment.

The practice has been rebuffed big time by Russian players in the NBA who chose to be “stayaways” from the national team to the European championship.

At home, a number of PBA teams instructed their prized players to forego service to flag and country to keep them from returning bloodied and injured.

Years ago, there was bad blood between the old Basketball Association of the Philippines and the Micaa league in choosing national players.

A similar conflict is happening today between the PBA and the SBP, but is “more complicated now because MVP (Pangilinan) is part of the PBA,” notes Fernandez, currently Cebu City marketing director of a Los Angeles-based renewable energy company.