London keeps calling Kirilenko

Some more good stuff coming out of England regarding the Jazz. Mark Woods of Britball caught up with Andrei Kirilenko while Utah visits for today’s exhibition game against Chicago and talked to him about the last time he played in London in a blog entry titled “Kirilenko jazzed up on latest London trip.”

Kirilenko’s first trip there happened 12 years ago, when A.K. was a teenager on Russian powerhouse CSKA Moscow, who came to the U.K. to play the now-defunct London Towers.

That trip won Kirilenko over on England.

“I’ve been back to London almost every year since,” he told Britball. “I love the restaurants, the shopping, the tourist stuff.”

Woods also wrote about what he called “one of basketball’s great enigmas,” referring to A.K. and his play in Russia/Utah.

The blogger is perplexed “why AK47 is so unstoppable for his country but yet so hamstrung within Jerry Sloan’s system in Utah. Having played in Salt Lake City his entire NBA career, there must be a better home for his talents. Or so you’d think.”

Kirilenko, the Jazz’s highest-paid player and the 11th highest in the NBA this season, told him that’s not the case.

“It’s not frustrating,” Kirilenko said. “It doesn’t matter who we get, that’s just who we got. You have to play with everybody. We have a great example. Russia doesn’t have anyone from the NBA except me but we won the European Championship. It was tough. It’s not like the Spanish team with five NBA guys or the French with the whole team.

“But again, it’s one more example. If you build a team to win rather than around individuals, you’ll have a great chance to be successful. Same with the Jazz. We have a chance to win the championship. But it’s only words until we convert it.”