Svi Mykhailiuk was raised in a Ukrainian city of 300,000, spent four years among the University of Kansas’ student population and will now look to make his name in the second-largest city in America.
But for the past two weeks, he turned heads in Las Vegas, not exactly someplace more inconspicuous.
“It’s a busy place,” Mykhailiuk said. “All these people, a lot of stuff going on. For me, it’s just basketball right now.”
It’s always been about basketball for Mykhailiuk, who grew up in Cherkasy — located in central Ukraine — for 17 years before earning his spot in the legendary program of the Kansas Jayhawks.
He always dreamed of playing in the NBA, but never really had the opportunity to watch live.
In fact, it was such a hassle back then to find games on the internet that he was limited to Euroleague matches and NBA classics from the previous decade.
“It was a lot of old games,” Mykhailiuk said. “Like 1996, 1995. It was just like taped games.”
Fortunately for Mykhailiuk, his family and friends don’t have that issue now that it’s his turn to play in the NBA. In fact, they were able to watch him thrive at summer league despite being 10 hours ahead of Vegas (although that makes for some early mornings).
“Everybody knows about the Lakers,” Mykhailiuk said. “It’s one of the best teams in the league, and one of the teams with really great history. I think back home, everybody knows about the Lakers.”
Mykhailiuk thinks he’ll return to Ukraine later this summer, possibly to play for the national team in its FIBA World Cup qualifying matches.
In the meantime, he had dinner last Friday with his former national team assistant assistant coach, who happens to be a familiar face for Lakers fans.
Slava Medvedenko collected two rings during the Lakers’ three-peat of the early 2000s, and later coached Mykhailiuk on the Ukrainian national team in 2013.
The Lakers of past and present met up in Vegas, where Medvedenko shared stories from those glory years.
As Mykhailiuk put it, they talked: “Life, basketball, L.A.”