Old teammates Sarunas Marciulionis, Alexander Volkov joined forces to get young players out of Kyiv / News - Basketnews.com

Credit:

Ukrainian basketball star Alexander Volkov, who has stepped up for his country amid Russia's invasion, has built a network to help the 90 Ukrainian kids he coaches in his youth basketball camp escape to safety.

The 58-year-old USSR Olympic gold medalist and former NBA pro recently told Sports Illustrated that he reached out to his former Atlanta Hawks teammate Sarunas Marciulionis, who has also returned to Eastern Europe after his NBA career, living in Vilnius, the capital of his native Lithuania.

"It was simple. I ask, 'Sarunas, can you help me?'" Volkov recounted. Marciulionis, 57, replied without hesitation: "Of course. What can I do?"

He was there to welcome nine kids, aged 15 to 16, and some of their parents when they arrived in Vilnius, also arranging housing for them and enrolling them in local schools.

Marciulionis is also helping the adolescent refugees "find a sliver of normal," connecting them with teammates in other communities. The kids are about the same age as Marciulionis and Volkov were when they first met as roommates at a similar basketball camp.

"It's nine kids in two rooms, not glamorous," Marciulionis said. "But we're getting them to school. We're getting their mothers settled. It's not an ideal situation, but it's better, obviously, than where they were."

Volkov has also rallied support from several other former teammates, including Arvydas Sabonis, who has helped get some of the teens settled in Kaunas.

"I never saw this was going to be such big support. I receive phone calls from all over the world. I never received so many calls in my life with some friends I really didn't talk to for like 20, 30 years," Volkov said.

"They called me and offer any support they can. And you cannot imagine how many kids send me appreciation messages and parents, also."

Both Volkov and Marciulionis came up through the Soviet basketball system, and Volkov was considered "the first Russian to make the NBA" in the late '80s.

Volkov is out of Ukraine, having driven out of the country in early April with his wife, heading through the Ukrainian city of Odesa and Moldova and arriving in Istanbul. The Volkovs then got on a flight to Atlanta on April 6 to be with their daughter and grandson. "At the airport, you can’t believe how much crying there was."

Now, Volkov and Marciulionis lead their own resistance against Vladimir Putin's Russia as Volkov joins the ranks fighting to defend Ukraine and Marciulionis helps him from the outside.

"He's always been like my brother, and I've always been very close to him," Volkov said. "We share the same philosophy, same values throughout all life. And still now."

Like what we are doing? Support us by becoming BN+ member.