PHOTO: Bildbyrån
For over a year, Jonas Jerebko has been silent.
Now the Swedish basketball star is speaking out for the first time about the controversial move to Russia.
– I would never have done it, he says in an interview with the news agency TT.
It has been over a year since the Swedish basketball star Jonas Jerebko signed for CSKA Moscow. The move to Russia in the middle of the nation’s terrible war against Ukraine aroused enormous anger throughout Sweden, and Jerebko had to receive extremely strong reactions.
Jerebko’s apology
He was suspended from all national team activities and was expelled from basketball Sweden. Since then, Jonas has been silent about everything that has happened, only now he dares to break the silence and open up about everything.
– What I want to say to the Swedish people is that I apologize. I made a completely wrong choice, I only thought about basketball and it turned out wrong. I have taken the consequences and what I want to do now is talk about it, he says in a major interview with the news agency TT.
– From the very beginning, when I had planned, I had doubts. But I hadn’t played in a year and a half. I just wanted to play basketball. I now realize how wrong it was. I would never have done it in hindsight, of course I regret it.
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Jerebko admits that the passion for playing basketball was far too strong and there were not many options but to sign for the Russian army’s own basketball team.
– My motivation to play was not at its best. But I saw it as a chance to get in shape, I didn’t think about the political aspect at all. I hadn’t played in a long time and the urge took over. I don’t know what to say… I regret it. I wanted to get back to the NBA and this was my only chance. I chose to take that chance, but if I had this chance again, I wouldn’t take it. It is easy to be a hindsight, he says in the interview.
– I was only thinking about basketball. I know that I am a role model for many, that many look up to me. Looking back on this, I can say that I would never do it again.
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“Is frustrating”
The 36-year-old is Swedish basketball’s foremost and most successful player of all time. As one of the few Swedes, he has played a full 10 seasons in the world’s best basketball league, the NBA, and he is the only Swede to have played in an NBA final.
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He is a great role model for many young Swedes and that is why the move was so incredibly provocative for many and an infected storm of criticism has plagued Jerebko ever since. But he also feels unfairly treated by the Swedish Basketball Association and has felt “blacklisted” for the past year, as he wrote in a post on social media recently.
– I haven’t heard anything from the association in over a year, whether it was right or wrong to write, I don’t know. It is frustrating. I had plans to play those months in CSKA, come home and play for the national team and then hang up my boots. So the thoughts went. But it didn’t turn out that way, Jerebko admits to the news agency.
– I received no answers from the association. Say I’m suspended for a year, two years, or forever. I want an answer. I told them that I was moving to CSKA and that they were welcome to contact me before doing anything. But then I read in the newspaper that I was suspended. I have always tried to put Swedish basketball on the map and give back. I made a slip, a big one. But I stand for what I have done.
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The contract with CSKA Moscow expired in June 2022 and since then Jonas Jerebko has not played any basketball at all. Probably the star forward has also played his very last basketball game in his career, but nothing has been decided yet.
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