Former Utah Jazz forward Andrei Kirilenko loves the fact that he was ahead of his time

In any conversation about NBA players who were ahead of their time, you won’t go long without hearing the name of Utah Jazz forward Andrei Kirilenko. In 2004, if you asked the average person where Kirilenko stood in the league hierarchy, they would probably say that he was in the back end of the top 25 (he was an All-Star that season). Yet, if you look at Box Plus-Minus (BPM), Kirilenko was third in the NBA, trailing behind only the two greatest power forwards of all time: Kevin Garnett and Tim Duncan.

What gives? Why was there such a major disconnect?

The reason for this disparity between how good Kirilenko was perceived to be and how good he actually was is simple: back then, we didn’t understand how much of an impact his versatility had on winning.

(Sidebar #1: If you were wondering what it is exactly that made Kirilenko’s playstyle so revolutionary, be sure to check out this feature I did on him two years ago.)

When you think about it, this is kind of tragic. Kirilenko never got the credit he deserved when he was playing. But if you ask him, he actually likes it that way.

“I take that as a great compliment. As a player, you want to be a guy who plays futuristic basketball,” Kirilenko told me in an interview. “When you’re playing, you don’t really think about all that, you just play. But now that I’ve stepped away from the game, I have all these people pointing it out, and it makes sense.”

“I like that my style was very different from the players I played with. I think it is more similar to the way players play now.”

How Did Kirilenko Learn To Play This Way?

Something that has always fascinated me when studying these basketball pioneers is what inspires them to play the way that they do. Back when I initially did a deep dive analysis on Kirilenko, I looked everywhere for that answer, but I couldn’t find it. So, I decided to ask him. It turns out that the answer was actually just “no one.”

“No one in the NBA just because back in the days we didn’t have much access to film. There wasn’t much information for us to have an idol to study,” Kirilenko explained.

“The only person we really got to see was Michael Jordan. But you can’t replicate him because he’s an alien,” Kirilenko joked.

(Sidebar #2: While Kirilenko didn’t study any NBA players prior to his arrival into the league, he did agree with me when I said that his game shared a lot of similarities with another member of the 1990s Chicago Bulls, Scottie Pippen.)

Instead, Kirilenko credits a great deal of his development to his coaching and the points of emphasis that were ingrained in him as a young boy growing up in Russia.

“I think the Russian style of basketball is different from a lot of other countries, and that when we were growing up, we were taught to focus on every aspect of the game,” Kirilenko told me. “A lot of kids who play basketball in Russia are like Swiss Army Knives. They can do everything on the floor.”

Kirilenko Still Loves Hoopers

For all his strengths, Kirilenko was never someone who could get you a bucket at a moment’s notice. During his career, he never placed higher than the 73rd percentile in points per 75 possessions (per Thinking Basketball Database). And only twice during his 13-year career did he place higher than the 60th percentile. However, his limitation in that area hasn’t caused him to grow cold. In fact, one thing Kirilenko is critical of when it comes to Russian basketball philosophy is that they don’t focus enough on these types of players.

“With that said, [Russian players] are always really good at all the role player skills, but never really good at one-on-one scoring,” Kirilenko admitted. “That’s why I am always telling people that you shouldn’t try to make everyone a good role player. You need to empower the players who are strong one-on-one scorers to continue to grow that area of their game.”

“I was better than Deron Williams at a lot of the role player skills, but when it comes to one-on-one basketball, I had no chance. He was a beast.”

Personally, it is pretty heartwarming to hear that even someone who is as much of an analytical darling as Kirilenko still understands and appreciates the importance of self-generated scoring and lineup balance. I’m glad people have finally caught on to the incredible player/basketball mind he was during his heyday.