Fighting had erupted in Ukraine. Former NBA player Toure’ Murry was still in the western city of Ternipol, Ukraine, where he played for professional basketball team BC Ternipol. He needed to get out of the country, and that wasn’t easy. Though fighting had not consumed Ternipol, he said missiles landed in a city two hours away. “It was difficult and confusing because my city was pretty far away from all the action that was going on in the beginning, but everything escalated pretty fast,” Murry told USA TODAY Sports. “I got a call from my team telling me it was pretty serious, and they had a car waiting.”
Source: Jeff Zillgitt @ USA Today Sports
More on this storyline
Murry got in the car on Friday but didn’t know where he was going. “There was risk of going to the Poland border and getting sent back. There was no guarantees,” Murry said. “So we took a leap of faith going through Romania. It worked out in terms of getting across the border. But going through the situation, we had no idea if we would get out.” After a 4-½-hour car ride to the Romanian border, Murry took a train to Bucharest and then flew to Amsterdam and home to Houston. That wasn’t the end of his worry. His brother, Yanick Murry, is an assistant coach with BC Budivelnyk in Kyiv, the site of an intense battle between Russians and Ukrainians. He just left the country on Sunday, fleeing to Warsaw, Poland. “His experience has been really, really tough,” Murry said. “He barely made it out.” -via USA Today Sports / March 1, 2022
On Feb. 12, the U.S. ordered non-emergency employees to leave the U.S. embassy in Kyiv, and that prompted Stockton to plan his departure. “When the U.S. embassy left Kyiv, that generally means that something is imminent, or made me feel that something is imminent,” Stockton said. “As an American, that’s my final security blanket. If stuff goes bad and the embassy’s not here, then it’s every man for himself, and you’ve got to try to find your own way out. “So when the embassy packed up and left, that was when the decision was made that we’re not going to stay any longer and it’s time for us to go home.” -via USA Today Sports / March 1, 2022