This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2007, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Posted: 11:44 AM- If there has been a theme to the year for Kyrylo Fesenko, the Jazz's second-round draft pick who officially signed with the team Wednesday, it has been to sit tight and wait.
Back in June, Fesenko waited for a visa that never came, forcing him to skip the Eurocamp for draft prospects in Italy. After the draft, Fesenko had to wait for permission from his Ukrainian club team to practice in advance of the Rocky Mountain Revue.
Then it took more than three weeks after his final summer-league game for the Jazz to hammer out a three-year contract for Fesenko and the $500,000 paid to his former club, Cherkaski Mavpi.
The waiting finally ended Wednesday morning, but not after a sleepless night in which Fesenko tossed and turned in his hotel bed thinking about signing an NBA contract.
Talking on the phone from the airport, Fesenko said, "I'm almost sleeping right now." He would have plenty of time to catch up on sleep, flying first to New York and then home to Ukraine.
His plans for the next few weeks? To rest, hang out with friends and family, do some conditioning work and maybe take a trip to the beach. "I just want to have rest, and I like to swim," said Fesenko, who is due back in Utah after Labor Day.
After the Revue, Fesenko stayed in Salt Lake City to work out and wait for the deal to get done. "It was hard because everyday, like, under pressure," he said. "I go all the time to my agent, asking how it was going, what is the problem?"
Where Fesenko will play this season remains to be seen - whether he stays with the Jazz or splits time with their NBA Development League affiliate in Orem. Regardless, Fesenko will become the fourth Ukrainian player to reach the NBA.
And Fesenko said he hopes more players from his country will follow in his footsteps, as well as those of his predecessors, Vitaly Potapenko, Slava Medvedenko and Viktor Khryapa.
"I'm really proud of that and I'm really happy," Fesenko said of being No. 4. "I'm drafted and I hope that more Ukrainian players will be in the league because we have a lot of really good players, young players."
Fesenko also was asked about joining a Jazz team that reached the Western Conference finals last season. He will back up Mehmet Okur and Jarron Collins, with a bullish style sure to bring energy off the bench.
He said he hoped to help the Jazz "to beat somebody," and added, "Right now, we have to do all the job from the beginning, from the zero."