‘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.

Courtesy of FIBA

“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.”