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Today Slava did good

I like to have a good sleep on the weekends but at is turns out Dominican Republic was set up to play Ukraine at 6:30 AM local time (Dominican Republic), so Michael Beasley that..

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DR team

As i struggled to stay awake in front of the TV, i had not realize yet we are playing the team in which Viacheslav Slava Kravtsov is native of. I am just barely listening to the reports by the local media, the match up was terrible for Dominican Republic (DR) as we were missing our ace player Karl Towns, who is soon to be one of the best picks of the 2015 draft, i could probably write a ten pages long about how good this kid is going to be but Kentucky started classes soon and he had to stay in USA, anyway today is all about our Ukrainian star Alex Len Slava Kravtsov.

The game tips off and i see Mike Fratello, head coach of the Ukraine team and former NBA TV commenter...and oh former NBA coach from 1983 to 2006, so right away i knew they had good schemes, former NBA player Eugene Jeter played for the european squad, you may know him as Pooh Jeter then the roster was filled with larky players who did not have much talent but played really good ball movement and took the open shot, and of course Slava.

Slava was the biggest player, literally, at 7,0 we were outmatched since only Eloy Vargas could stand next to him 6,11, the 2nd tallest player in the DR team is 6,8 and from 6,7 then everybody else cant pass the 6,5 mark.

So Fratello tried to used Pooh Jeter to destroy our defense, he is quick and can shoot, he ended leading tailing 16 points but DR stay in the contest thanks to the likes of Francisco Garcia who is much more than 3nD guy for our selection, he is our Jamal Crawford, because if you need a miracle 3 poiinter or an ISO type of play, Garcia will get it, newly signed Houston Rockert lead the the game with 18 points.

We had a good shot, running the fastbreak wasn't really working for Fratello and somehow DR took quite a few offensive rebounds, Ukraine was big and somewhat athletic, it came as no surprise almost everybody in their squad could shoot the 3, but DR had more talent all around, so Fratello pull out the big guns in the 3rd quarter. Enters Slava.

SLAVA

Soaring through the skies

The local media had mentioned him quite a few times at this point, they were reminding everybody in Santo Domingo that the NBA is more than the Lakers/Miami and Jordan when it was said Slava played for Phoenix Suns last season, i couldn't help but to laugh a bit at the notion, all of the sudden my dad started calling me to inquire about the 7 foot player, i just told him to expect good defense and weird offense.

Slava notched 7 rebounds and put up 13 points in just 20 minutes, from the 3rd quarter on he forced mismatches and when the game looked bad enough he got fouled, he did a good job shooting 5/7 from the FT line. Funny enough he is not even on the starting 5 for Ukraine.

I was both sad and happy, my national team lost but i saw plenty of good stuff from them and Slava got to shine bright as the star he was is.

Here is a picture of the fun Jack Michael Martinez