The former NBA champion is selling championship rings to raise money for Ukraine

Slava Medvedenko, who won two titles with the Lakers, will part with the rings at an auction to help his country: "The future of our children is more important, I realized that I can die"

Voila system!

sport

25/07/2022

Monday, July 25, 2022, 4:18 p.m

• Share on Facebook

• Share on WhatsApp

• Share on Twitter

• Share by email

• Share in general

• Comments

  Comments

LeBron James scores 42 points in summer league (from Twitter)

When NBA players achieve their dream and win a championship, what remains with them alongside the memories are those prestigious championship rings.

While most players carefully guard the ring that commemorates the achievement, there are those who are forced to give up the tangible item that commemorates the achievement and stay with only the memories.

One of them is Slava Medvedenko, a former Ukrainian basketball player, who decided to auction off his two championship rings to raise funds for his country, which is at war with Russia, which invaded it five months ago.

Medvedenko arrived in 2000 for the reigning champion, Los Angeles Lakers, and helped them win championships in 2001 and 2002.

Two decades later, he decided to say goodbye to the rings: "They are important to me, but for me the victory of Ukraine and the future of our children is more important."

The former player wanted to raise 50 thousand dollars first and that was the starting point of the auction, but it seems that he will be able to sell each of the rings for at least double that amount.

twitter

The Ukrainian said the words in Warsaw, the capital of Poland, where he organized an exhibition game (for which all the tickets were sold) in order to raise funds for the Ukrainian refugees who crossed the border to the neighbor to the west: "We want to restore halls because the Russian army bombed over 100 schools. Our country needs A lot of money to restore the schools and halls will be the last priority. We have a hard winter in Ukraine and the children have to play inside."

The basketball player said that during the war there was one moment that convinced him to sell the rings.

Medvedenko stood on the roof of a building in the capital city of Kyiv and saw the Russian missiles paint the sky: "At that moment I asked myself why I needed the rings sitting with me, I realized that I could die. I realized that I had to sell the rings to show leadership, to help my people live well more and help the children."

Medvedenko, who served in the Ukrainian army during the war, told about his military experience: "We defended our neighborhood. I'm not the best soldier or sniper, but I can help. I shot several times but not at people. I'm glad I didn't have to shoot someone, the army Ours is doing a great job to protect Kyiv and we should thank them for that."

good to know (in advance)

The solution to knee pain is closer than ever - thanks to technology in the shoe

Submitted by Apostrophe

• sport

• NBA

Tags

• Ukraine

• Los Angeles Lakers