Xavier Moon: "I love Zenit fans"

Blue-White-Sky Blues official website publishes an interview with guard Xavier Moon exclusively for Zenit TV. We talk about the emotions of returning to the court, the support of the fans, and recovery from injury — in our conversation right after the win over Enisey (106:56).

— Xavier, big comeback for you, more than a year out of the court. What are you feeling right now being on the floor in St. Petersburg and in Zenit jersey?

— Man it feels good. Like you said, first game in a year. The last time I played it was in this gym. So it felt good to come back and the reception from the fans was great. I'm just happy we got a win.

— I suppose this road to recovery was not very easy for you. Was it difficult physically or mentally?

— Neither one really. Approach every day like the offseason. So I really attacked my recovery and it was pretty smooth process. I had a lot of people in my corner helping me out and they got me back a lot quicker than I was expecting. So I appreciate those guys.

— You scored your first bucket as soon as you came on the court. What did you feel when you made it?

— Man it felt good. Like you said, it's been a year since I played. So it felt good to get that first bucket. I was a little nervous, man, so it felt good. I was just happy we got a win.

— You also scored the 100th point tonight. So burgers, burgers?

— No, I ain't buying no burgers. Not the first time. Not the first time, bet (laughs).

— How did you feel in those minutes on the court today?

— Felt great. My energy was high. My game shape is a lot better than I was expecting it to be, so I'm looking forward to the next couple games.

— You changed your game number from 15 to 17. Are you superstitious or you wanted to change something?

— I changed it to honor my little sister. That's a story for another day but yeah that's the reason why I changed my jersey number.

— Can you say that this current version of Xavier Moon is much stronger than the one was one year ago?

— Absolutely, both mentally and physically. So a lot more to come in the season and I'm really looking forward to what's in the future.

— What does support from our fans mean to you because they made a lot of applause...

— Man I love the fans. They was checking on me during my recovery so big shout out to them and they're really helping us out during the season.

— So you are back and what's next for you for this team?

— Practice tomorrow and then another game on Saturday.

— It's our third back-to-back as we score 100 points, What does it mean?

— It means a lot, it means we're playing unselfish, hopefully we can keep playing like that and it'll lead to a lot more wins in the future.

— The next game will be just in three days, so maybe invite our fans?

— Absolutely, we need to see y'all at the game on Saturday. I don't know what time we played, but we need to see everybody there man. We need a packed crowd, a lot of energy and we're going to come out with a dope for y'all.