How former college basketball player is helping Ukraine in war with Russia
UTICA, N.Y. — Adam Kemp has forged a long, winding path during his eight-year professional basketball career which has included stops in Macedonia, Kazakhstan, Belgium, Bulgaria, Greece and now Poland.
The former Marist College player has spent the last four seasons there, living through the COVID-19 pandemic and separation from his wife and son, who could not return to the country for a new season because they were not workers.
"I ended up just going back home because I couldn't stay the whole year without them over here, especially with the pandemic going on," Kemp said. "It just wasn't a comfortable situation for us to be apart for that."
Now reunited, they are doing what they can to help those impacted by Russia's invasion of neighboring Ukraine.
Legia Warszawa, the team which Kemp has been with for four seasons, is using its home gym as a donation center and Kemp says there is a large population of Ukrainian refugees making their way to Poland now.
"My wife and I sent out a couple of messages just to friends and family and asked if anyone wanted to donate money," Kemp said. "A lot of people from back home are sending $10, $20 and stuff and we've added up to quite a bit of money and we've been dropping it off to the Polish Red Cross."
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In Kemp's eight-year career, this season with Legia Warszawa has been his most successful. The team has advanced to the quarterfinals of the FIBA Europe Cup Tournament.
While Kemp had no Division I offers, he did get invited to the NBA's Summer League by the Detroit Pistons, where he played in front of the likes of Kevin Durant and Reggie Miller. He impressed coaches, but ultimately was not invited back.
"Sometimes I look out my apartment window and I can see downtown Warsaw from my window and I'm like 'I cannot believe for the life of me that I'm here right now,' " Kemp says.
"If you told me when I was even 15 or 16, that I would be playing professionally for 8 years, I would say, 'That's awesome. But how did it happen?' "
Kenny Lacy is a sports reporter for the Utica (N.Y.) Observer-Dispatch. Email Kenny Lacy at klacy@gannett.com.