Drew Gordon and his family are now safely residing in Denver near his brother and their parents. Gordon said his Budivelnyk teammates of Ukrainian descent, however, are still in the now war-torn country that he grew to love in his short time there. “Ukraine is a proud country,” Gordon said. “The people are proud to be Ukrainian. There’s a lot of history that goes along with being Ukrainian and they fight hard for what they believe. They also make sure that whoever visits Ukraine sees its beauty for what it is. There’s a lot of monuments that are decades old from past run-ins and past conflicts that they were able to prevail with. And they’re good people, man. I really respect all of the people of Ukraine, not just because it’s a country I played in and they’re nice to basketball players. I’ve seen how they interact with each other. I’ve seen how just the day-to-day life is.