Feb 9, 2025
are you ok or are you a storm fan?🙁
seen from France
seen from Germany
seen from Germany
seen from Malaysia
seen from United States
seen from Denmark
seen from United States
seen from China
seen from Serbia
seen from Malaysia
seen from Serbia
seen from Serbia
seen from Serbia
seen from Malaysia
seen from United Kingdom
seen from Belarus
seen from Romania
seen from India
seen from Russia
seen from Netherlands
are you ok or are you a storm fan?🙁
the welcome back graphic that seattle posted for joyner holmes is truly so funny. it reads as “oopsie! we need you back please come back 🙏 “
😭😭 I don’t blame Joyner!!! “BG BACK!! SO SEND THE HELP MFS!!”😂😂😂😂
Here's the state of women's sports:
Olympic gold medallist and WNBA champion Ariel Atkins was playing basketball in Ukraine while global leaders threatened military conflict.
Imagine if Olympic gold medallist and NBA champion Jrue Holiday was playing basketball in a potential warzone. That would be the biggest story in sports journalism and the biggest story in journalism period.
But the only English-language news I have about Ariel Atkins comes from Ariel's insta-story. "I am not in Ukraine." And on her English-speaking teammate Joyner Holmes' story. "We are safe."
... No concrete information. What exactly is happening for foreign female hoopers in Ukraine? If I want to know that, I have to resort to google translating a Turkish article.
That is the state of women's sports in the US. We're so far behind, we leave it to Turkish-language news to tell us what's happening with our female Olympians.
FIBA Kadınlar Avrupa Kupası (EuroCup Women) son 8 turunda Ukrayna temsilcisi BC Prometey ile eşleşen Çukurova Basketbol Kulübü Ukrayna-Rusya
Çukurova's quarter-final opponent BC Prometey
Çukurova Basketball Club, which matched with Ukrainian team BC Prometey in the FIBA EuroCup Women's Elite-8 round, is going to Plovdiv, Bulgaria, due to the Ukraine-Russia crisis.
The match to be played in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, due to the Ukraine-Russia crisis, will start on Thursday, February 24 at 21.00 CET. For game 2 of the series, the teams will meet at Mersin Servet Tazegül Sports Hall on Wednesday, March 2 at 19.00.
So they're in Bulgaria. And they're continuing to play for Prometey in the tournament Prometey pays them to win.
Again... If Jrue Holiday was persevering through violent international conflict to play basketball, we'd see his face everywhere.
And yeah... I'll say it. If a USWNT gold medallist was persevering through violent international conflict to play soccer, we'd see her face everywhere.
Instead, Ariel Atkins gets zero coverage. She has to deal with all her stressed out fans contacting her because they don't know what's happening.
That's the state of women's sports. That's the state of women's basketball.
Another article that I have to read with Google translate because English-language media does not care about female Olympians.
Esta es la situación de las competiciones europeas y profesionales españoles en relación al conflicto entre Ucrania y Rusia.
Russia-Ukraine conflict: How can it affect women's basketball? What Spaniards are there in both territories?
With the start of Russia's attack on Ukrainian territories, European competitions enter a territory of uncertainty before the end of the 2021-2022 season. In the absence of more information in the coming days from FIBA about its women's competitions, we review the Russian and Ukrainian teams involved in the Euroleague and Eurocup, with three Spaniards in their ranks.
Russian teams in Euroleague
UMMC Ekaterinburg (Alba Torrens, Luis Rey, and Miguel Méndez)
Located 1,819 kilometers from Donetsk, UMMC Ekaterinburg is the only Russian team with Spanish women in its squad: Alba Torrens, accompanied by coaches Luis Rey and Miguel Méndez. The almighty Russian team has qualified as first in group A, thus pairing itself with the other Russian team in the quarterfinals, Dynamo Kursk, a club located very close to the Ukrainian north-eastern border.
[Jonquel Jones, Brittney Griner (?), Courtney Vandersloot, Allie Quigley, Emma Meesseman, Alba Torrens, and Alex Bentley play for UMMC]
Dynamo Kursk
Located just 100 kilometers from the northeastern border of Ukraine and just over 400 kilometers from Kiev. Even without Spaniards in their squad, their matchup against UMMC Ekaterinburg could still put Spaniards in jeopardy, at least in terms of location. The series against Torrens' team is scheduled for March 8, 11, and 16, the second being the game in Kursk.
[Arike Ogunbowale, Natasha Howard, and Epiphanny Prince play for Dynamo Kursk]
Ukrainian teams in EuroCup
BC Prometey (city: Kamianske)
Prometey will play their next home games in Bulgaria. These have been the words of Volodymyr Dubinsky, president of the club (translated by BasketNews): "We fully understand the concern of our players, as well as each staff-member, family, and friends. We have to be more united than ever. That is why we have decided that we will prepare the BCL matches in the Czech Republic, while Americans Ariel Atkins and Joyner Holmes will join the women's team already in Bulgaria."
BC Prometey will face Turkey's Çukurova in the EuroCup round of 16.
American women’s basketball players in Ukrainian SuperLeague show support for their displaced teammates.
‘They’re Our Teammates’: American Players in Ukrainian League Show Support on Court
One professional basketball player shares what it has been like for her and her BC Prometey teammates as their field of play shifts from Ukraine to Bulgaria.
Joyner Holmes has not been in Ukraine since Jan. 28. At 4 a.m. that morning, she left her apartment in Dnipro, a city in the country’s center, and was driven 2 ½ hours to an airport in Zaporizhzhia. Despite her lone American teammate Ariel Atkins urging her to bring more with her, Holmes packed just one big suitcase, mostly filled with clothes and shoes. She flew to Istanbul and then to Dallas.
“I have a lot of stuff in the Ukraine,” Holmes says. She believes she’ll get it back one day. When exactly, though, she isn’t quite sure.
Holmes, a 24-year-old forward, is in her first season with BC Prometey of the Ukrainian Basketball SuperLeague. She played in the WNBA the previous two seasons, but moved to Ukraine in August after being waived by the Aces at the end of June.
When Holmes and Atkins left the country in January, discussion about a possible Russian invasion had, in Holmes’s words, been “swirling in the air.” Still, she says, many of her teammates downplayed the tense climate and said it was “normal for them.”
BC Prometey players drape themselves in Ukrainian flags before a recent game in Bulgaria on Feb. 24.
“I think in the last 24 hours they’ve been really surprised,” Holmes says.
Prometey players woke up Thursday morning to alerts that Russia’s attack on Ukraine had begun by land, sea and air. One of the reported targets was Dnipro, the city where some of them call home. “In the blink of an eye this happens,” Holmes says. “The photos and videos, it’s insane to even look at.”
As the first day of Russia’s invasion wore on, Holmes was not stateside—she instead found herself playing for Prometey in front of fans in Bulgaria, against Turkish club CBK Mersin Yenisehir BLD. Many of her Ukrainian teammates were displaced from their homes with the conflict beginning less than 900 miles away.
When the stadium’s public address announcer called out Prometey’s roster, most of the players had Ukrainian flags draped around their shoulders. Atkins and Holmes held the flags in their hands. Those in attendance rose to their feet in applause as each of Prometey’s names were read. Yurkevichus. Datsko. Rymarenko. Nine Ukrainians in all. Players from CBK Mersin Yenisehir BLD stood across the opposite free-throw line and clapped. For two hours, the BC Prometey team hoped basketball would be a reprieve.
Standing alongside teammates she now considers family, Holmes watched as tears swelled in the eyes of those nearest to her. She choked up a bit herself, but gathered her team in a small circle inside the three-point arc and told them she was there for them. “I really love you guys and whatever happens tonight, we’ll go out there, play with our heart and give what we have.”
They broke the huddle, placed their Ukrainian flags on their bench seats, and then the game tipped off.
“They’re our friends, they’re our teammates, they’re our coaches,” Holmes says. “And they have no homes to go to right now.”
Holmes and Atkins, a four-time All-Defensive team guard for the Mystics, left Ukraine amid a break in Prometey’s schedule. While Holmes remained in Texas, Atkins went on to join USA Basketball in Washington, D.C., helping the United States qualify for the upcoming World Cup.
A WNBA spokesperson told Sports Illustrated on Thursday via a statement that the few players who were competing in Ukraine this offseason were no longer in the country. Guard Arella Guirantes of the Sparks had been with Budivelnyk Kyiv, while guard Leaonna Odom, who recently signed a training camp contract with the Mercury, was playing with Kyiv Basket.
“The league has also been in contact with WNBA players who are in Russia, either directly or through their agents,” the statement continued. “We will continue to closely monitor the situation.”
Holmes initially planned on flying back to her adopted home on Feb. 10 but pushed her flight back two days and later received a travel advisory that said Americans could not travel into the country at all.
Amid the geopolitical tensions, Prometey’s team president, Vladimir Mikhailovich Dubinsky, crafted an alternative plan. He paid to fly everyone to Bulgaria’s capital, Sofia, and transport them to nearby Plovdiv, where they would train and play. Holmes arrived last Friday.
Thursday’s game was the first of two legs in the EuroCup’s Round of 8. In the lead-up to the evening tip, Prometey’s coaches and officials provided regular updates to players on the situation back home. One Ukrainian player, who is the mother of a five-year-old child, tried to contact her son. Others tried contacting their parents. In Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, many users suffered internet disruptions amid reports of explosions in the region.
The Turkish club, featuring WNBA players DeWanna Bonner, Jasmine Thomas and Tiffany Hayes, jumped out to an early lead. Prometey trailed by nine at the end of the first quarter, 11 at halftime and eventually lost by 19. Before leaving the court, the team posed for a picture with 10 girls who had watched the contest. As the players walked off, two Ukrainian flags remained spread out in otherwise vacant seats behind the scorer’s table.
The team returned to their hotel and ate dinner before hearing reports around the first day of fighting and the toll it took.
“Can’t even put into words how proud I am of my Ukrainian teammates for drying up their tears and giving their best tonight,” Atkins wrote on Instagram afterward.
Ukrainian SuperLeague play has been suspended due to the Russian aggression, meaning Holmes’s international stint is nearing its conclusion. The two teams that met Thursday will play the second leg of the Round of 8 in Mersin on March 2. If Prometey wins and advances to the EuroCup quarterfinals, it is unclear where exactly it will play. If Prometey loses, Holmes, who recently signed a training camp contract with the WNBA’s Sun, will return to Dallas. But what about her Ukrainian teammates?
“Who knows what their next step is. That’s the scariest part,” Holmes says. “We played this game and then back to reality. Life still hits, and it’s still war now.”
Prometey
Home: Kamianske, Ukraine, a Dnieper River city in eastern Ukraine with a population of 230,000. Prometey has temporarily relocated to Plovdiv, Bulgaria.
Ukrainian SuperLeague ranking: #1
Ukrainian SuperLeague Win-Loss record: 21-1
FIBA EuroCup Win-Loss record: 9-2
Roster
⭐️: national team player [EuroCup stats]
Starting 5
#4 Olga Dubrovina–Point Guard–age: 34 🇺🇦⭐️ [9.3 points 3.5 rebounds 7.3 assists 1.1 steals]
#7 Ariel Atkins–Shooting Guard–age: 25 🇺🇸⭐️ [20.7 points 5.3 rebounds 2.8 assists 3.2 steals]
#77 Nikolina Babic–Small Forward–age: 27 🇧🇦⭐️ [14.5 points 2.9 rebounds 3.9 assists 1.2 steals]
#24 Joyner Holmes–Power Forward–age: 24 🇺🇸 [18.8 points 8.3 rebounds 3.7 assists 2.3 steals]
#21 Tetyana Yurkevicius–Center–age: 27 🇺🇦⭐️ [8.5 points 11.2 rebounds 2.5 assists 3.3 steals]
Second String
#32 Kateryna Rymarenko–Forward–age: 31 🇺🇦 [7pts] #5 Viktoria Kondus–Swing–age: 24 🇺🇦⭐️ [6.6pts] #10 Uliana Datsko–Forward–age: 22 🇺🇦⭐️ [5.9pts] #35 Veronika Liubinets–Center–age: 22 🇺🇦⭐️ [4pts] #18 Yulia Musienko–Guard–age: 24 🇺🇦⭐️ [1.6pts]
Reserves
#11 Vita Horobets–Swing–age: 25 🇺🇦⭐️ #44 Daryna Mironenko–Forward/Center–age: 22 🇺🇦 #54 Mariia Ignatchenko–Forward–age: 17 🇺🇦 #6 Oleksandra Semenchuk–Small Forward–age: 18 🇺🇦