Excerpt from the Dayton Daily News
By Tom Archdeaccon
He was in the car late Monday afternoon, on his way to the game at the FedExForum, but his thoughts weren’t on his Memphis Grizzlies’ match-up with the visiting San Antonio Spurs that night.
Vitaly Potapenko was thinking about the deadly nightmare unfolding in his homeland of Ukraine.
“It makes me sad and concerned…and angry,” said the Grizzlies’ assistant coach who was one of the greatest, most colorful and embraced Wright State basketball players in history.
He was called “The Ukraine Train” and for two memorable seasons he carried the freight and good fortune of the Raiders.
Now he’s carrying a burden that is heavier and has far less promise.
“We are both Slavic nations,” he said. “Ukrainians live in Russia and Russians live in Ukraine. I had a lot of Russian friends growing up. I spoke Russian with them and Ukrainian with my parents at home.
“This is not people against people. The Russian government decided to invade another country (like Georgia in 2008 and Crimea in 2014) for no real reason, just its own personal agenda.”
