Yigori Ryurikov
| No. 41 – Winnipeg Voyageurs | |
|---|---|
| Position | Forward |
| Species | Sable ( Mustelidae ) |
| Gender | Male |
| Nickname(s) | |
| Yeeg | |
| Personal information | |
| Born |
March 22, 2000 Magadan, Siberia, Russia |
| Nationality | Russian |
| Listed height | 6 ft 9 in (2.06 m) |
| Listed weight | 194 lb (88 kg) |
| Shoots | Right-handed |
| Career information | |
| School | East Lansing PolyTech |
| FBA draft | 2021 / Round: 1 / Pick: 21st overall |
| Selected by the Las Vegas Wildcards | |
| Pro playing career | 2021–present |
| Career history | |
| 2021 - Mar. 2022 | Las Vegas Wildcards |
| Mar. 2022-present | Winnipeg Voyageurs |
| Career highlights and awards | |
| |
| Contract information | |
| Contract year | 2021 |
| 2023 Salary | $3 million |
| Player Contacts | |
| (IC) Agent | Mitch |
| (OOC) Creator | Mitch |
| (OOC) Actor | Unknown |
| (OOC) Usage | Ask me before any use |
Biography
Yigori Ryurikov was born as the second child in a working class sable family, in the port town of Magadan, set at the northern edge of the Sea of Ohktosk, in eastern Siberia. With his older sister getting much of the family’s attention as something of a violin prodigy, Yigori found a way of getting attention for himself by being clownish and unruly at primary school. But while his mother could overlook his transgressions, and his father was constantly busy working as a transmission repairman on heavy trucks and boats, his school headmaster refused to tolerate such behavior.
After several sessions in detention did nothing to curb his attitude, the headmaster decided the best way to bring about a change in Yigori was to simply wear him out with physical activity. So, Yigoiri was forced to take up a sport.
Soccer was the most common sport played in Magadan, but without skills, Yigori would not see much field time, and so the school’s headmaster pushed him onto the basketball team instead. Skills were lower across the board, and his seemingly boundless energy was a natural fit, and thus Yigori found himself taking up the sport at the age of seven. It garnered no interest from his family, but it did at least seem to burn off energy, and give him a bit more focus, though it never truly stopped him from being his class clown.
Life went on in much the same way for three more years, until his sister’s skill at the violin landed her a music scholarship in America. With her being the star of the family, and Yigori being little more than a rather tall, goofy eleven year old, it was decided that the family would move to America to support her. That, and their father was being offered co-ownership of his cousin’s transmission shop in Lansing, Michigan.
Life in Lansing
The move from a Siberian port town to the American midwest came as a system shock to Yigori. Having only a loose grasp of English, and used to life in a much smaller city, he struggled to make friends, or integrate well. Once more, his mother paid most of her attention to his sister, and his father was constantly working. But barely knowing English, Yigori found that being a joker in class was difficult, and he looked for other ways to gain recognition, or acceptance. Even trying to get on with the anime kids was stifled by his watching experience having been subtitled in Russian.
Having moved halfway through a school year, Yigori became quiet and withdrawn, focusing on learning English, and doing enough to complete his final year of elementary school.
Middle school was another shock, with multiple classes a day, all new kids to get to know, and a sense of need to act grown-up, all of the sudden. Or at least as grown-up as a middle-schooler thinks they ought to be. What had begun as a bright spark of hope for a new start turned to another drudge of misery, until his salvation came with that school year’s basketball tryouts.
Basketball. It was a sport he knew, and was good at. Or at least he had been good at it in Magadan. If there was any way he could prove himself to his classmates, basketball had to be it, and so he went out for the team.
Whether it was drive to be accepted, learned skill, his height, or a combination of all three, he not only made the team, but was put in as starting power forward. Suddenly he had teammates, and he knew that teammates could be friends, so he doubled down on doing his best so that he could actually make friends, and keep them. Over the next two years, his English improved rapidly through hanging out with his teammates, and his goofy sense of humor returned.
Popularity on the court turned into popularity in the classroom, and coupled with his proclivity for being a class clown, Yigori found himself among the cool kids in school, even if they struggled to pronounce his name. Wanting to fit in, he embraced their shortened butchering of it, and was often just known as Yeeg.
High school served as a natural extension of his newfound charm and cool, as well as a crucible in which to further hone his skills on court. If it wasn’t for basketball, he wouldn’t be cool, he thought, so he trained hard and kept his focus there… when he wasn’t cracking jokes, or making short-form goofy videos with his friends for EweTube. But all the joking, laughter, and silliness couldn’t hold back his skill, and even in his sophomore year of high school, he was starting power forward on the varsity team, and a dominating force on the court.
Still, it didn’t get much attention at home, but Yeeg kept at it, until in his junior year he was told he was already being scouted by universities. Focus on practice skyrocketed, and his game continued to improve, but all the while his GPA began to plummet. Two FBA stars had come out of Lansing, the Paulicheks, and Yigori was determined to be the third.
In his senior year, his height peaked at 6’9”, which his friends said was “nice,” but his grades were anything but. Despite fantastic play on the court, and taking his high school to their first championship win in years, his GPA disqualified him from most universities for entry. Barely graduating, Yigori began to regret his decision to focus on sports, and instead going to work at his father and cousin’s shop, Ryurikov Transmission.
That was it, he told himself. He’d blown his chance to be a star, and was going to wind up a blue-collar worker for the rest of his life. Friends began to move away, and he saw his future in a puddle of transmission fluid, while his sister was off playing concert halls.
On a hot August night, tired from a double shift at the transmission shop, Yigori arrived home to sift through the mail for anything with his name on it. Cell phone ad offers, recruiting offers, car insurance adverts, it was all junk mail, until a pale blue envelope caught his eye. “East Lansing PolyTech.” Great, an ad for the local college, likely mocking his ability to pay. Ready to just toss it in the recycling bin with the rest of his junk mail, he paused and tore the envelope open.
His mother wound up swatting him numerous times with a wooden spoon in an attempt to stop his excited whoops and cheering, until she was caught up in a huge hug and lifted off her feet as Yigori danced in circles around their living room. He’d done it. He’d landed an athletic scholarship!
It didn’t matter that East Lansing PolyTech wasn’t a big sports school. They weren’t even AAA, he was getting a second chance! A big kiss on his mother’s cheek was enough to calm her punishing spoon, and Yigori quickly let her down and rushed to the phone to call the admissions office to accept. It was 9:30 PM. They were closed. Obviously. After a sleepless night, he called in the morning, then made his way across town to go fill out the necessary paperwork.
College life, it seemed, wasn’t terribly different from high school. At least not at a polytechnical college. Jokes, goofing, and antics won him friends, while great play on the court earned him respect. Half the school’s team had tried out for fun, but Yigori was there to win, and to prove himself. In doing so, he rallied his teammates, making the team competitive for the first time in years. Not that scouts noticed, of course. At least not until his junior year, where Yigori was not only his team’s standout star, but the sole reason they won their division’s championship.
“Get the ball to Yeeg.” That was the team motto. Typically a power forward was not a great scoring threat, but Yigori had a knack for going the extra mile, and had become their overall scoring leader. Tall, but not heavy, he was more agile and faster than most of his competitors, and those countless hours spent practicing on his own had honed a long-bomb game seldom seen in his role, as he became known for sinking threes. Strength? Not so much, but he made up for it with speed, agility, and drive, until offers from competing universities - big name universities - began coming in.
That time, it was Yigori’s turn to decline them. While not a prestigious school, East Lansing PolyTech had given him the chance when no one else would, and he showed his loyalty by remaining at East Lansing through graduation, and taking his team to their next finals, though losing out there.
A big fish in a small pond, Yigori could have easily played for some of the most competitive university teams, but because of his relatively unknown school, he was overlooked for the most recent collegiate stars games.
With a thick accent, a broad smile, easy laugh, and a great shot from outside the arc, the tall sable could be an excellent addition to any team, and so he’s put in for the 2021 FBA draft, in the hopes that some team is looking for a fast, offense-centric, long-bomber of a score-first forward, having moved from power to small forward in specialty.