Slava Medvedenko Considering Retirement
Ukrainian star and former NBA player Stanislav (Slava) Medvedenko is considering retiring from basketball. According to gpu-ua.info, the 28-year old Ukrainian cites the intense pain in his back from an injured herniated disc injury suffered in 2006 as the cause for his long absence from basketball. And because of this injury, he may not be able to play basketball professionally.
Medvedenko signed with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2000, and was a little more than a bt player for two seasons. Then in 2003-04, Slava received serious playing time because of an injury to Karl Malone. Slava averaged 21 minutes a game along with career highs in points (8.3) and rebounds (5.0) that season. Injuries did not allow Slava to build on that one promising season and he was eventually waived by the Lakers in favor of signing Jimmy Jackson at the end of the 2005 season.
In mid-2006-07 season, Slava caught on with the Atlanta Hawks. He finished out the season but the pain was still present. In his interview, Slava said that there was no chance he wouldn’t be returning to the NBA this season and that he had also turned down several contracts from European teams seeking his services. He couldn’t in good conscience accept any offers from any teams with the possibility of him being seriously-injured midway through.
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October 10th, 2007 at 11:18 pm