The 2022-2023 NBA season will begin in October and the Los Angeles Lakers are still not favorites due to roster issues and uncertainty around who will be the new players to help LeBron James.
The last time the Lakers won an NBA Championship was in 2020 in what became known as the Bubble Championship. But after that ring the team fell into a debacle because several players were traded.
On the other hand, there is the issue of the war in Ukraine that has not yet ended and it is unlikely that this international problem will end in 2022. Multiple celebrities around the world are calling for an end to the war.
Who is the former Lakers champion who is selling his rings to help Ukraine?
The Los Angeles Lakers won a back-to-back championship between 2000 and 2002 and one of the players who was part of two of those three titles was Ukrainian Slava Medvedenko. He is the player who is selling his two NBA Championship rings to help children in Ukraine, specifically sports facilities for children.
He played alongside Kobe Bryant and O'Neal from 2000 to 2006 and later finished his NBA career with the Atlanta Hawks. His pro career started with the Budivelnik Kyiv in 1997. Medvedenko was always a top bench player in the NBA.
Medvedenko was not present during the 2001 post season but was still awarded a ring despite the fact that it was his first season with the team and he only played seven games during the regular season.
