Someone's taller? Someone's got a girlfriend! And someone hasn't changed
Kyrylo Fesenko is a very tall man. He’s 7-foot-1, to be exact. Not that my height matters, but it’s about 17 inches less than that. We don’t speak eye-to-eye – more like eye-to-navel.
Apparently, it seems like our height disparity has become even bigger during the offseason to the big Ukrianian. Here was his greeting to me at camp when I saw him for the first time since the end of last season:
“Hey! What’s up?” he said with a smile. “You get shorter or what?”
Wider, yes.
Shorter, no.
But thanks for asking.
P.S. Anyone know where they sell shoes for men with higher heels?
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Fesenko also told me he’s ready to “prove to all my haters that Utah Jazz keep me for a reason” when they decided to take the $870,000 team option for this season.
That comment caught me by surprise. Heck, how many really know enough about the 15th man on an NBA roster to hate on them? (A funny reporter from Ogden, who will remain nameless to protect his identity, joked that apathy should not be confused for animosity.)
But Fez (Fes? Fezz? Fezzik?) claims they are out there.
“I browse on Internet,” he said, explaining how he knows. “Let’s just not call them haters. They don’t feel really great about me.”
Perhaps he just called them short, too.
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This last gem Fesenko gave me about one reason he’s gonna be improved this season: “I changed a lot of things in my life – in my out of the court life – so I think it will help me a lot.”
Now picture a big smile on his face.
“I have a girlfriend now. WOOO!”
(Here’s where I personally thank Kevin O’Connor and the Jazz brass for keeping Fesenko around for another year.)
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Kosta Koufos, who’s kinda the polar opposite of Fesenko when the recorder is on, is back at it.
As a rookie, he was so careful in his comments – perhaps afraid he’d say something wrong – that he often gave kinda generic answers that usually had something to do with being blessed to be on the Jazz, being honored to play for a Hall of Fame coach and working hard so he could help the team in any way possible.
It was almost comical. Frustrating might be the better word, really, because you hoped to get some more insight but occasionally wondered why you bothered asking questions.
Don’t get me wrong. He’s very polite – very fun at times when he lets his guard down in off-the-record situations, too – but put him on the record and you can almost recite the response along with him.
Have to admit it made me chuckle this weekend when I asked about how it was playing for the third-place Greeks at the European championships this summer.
“It was a great experience … played very well … To come back with a bronze medal is very cool,” he said. “I can tell my grandkids I won a bronze medal.”
In the same breath, he made a very Koufosesque addition to that statement.
“But right now I’m a Jazz player,” he quickly added. “I’m focused on being a Jazz player right now.”
I also asked about the food poisoning that made him miss a week’s worth of games. After admitting that he’d been sick, Koufos added, “I’m 100 percent. I’m healthy. I’m here to help the team.”
Of course you are.