Svi Mykhailiuk's career has gone sideways more often than straight. He was playing pro basketball in Ukraine as a teenager, picked Kansas over Real Madrid at 16, and was starting for Bill Self at 17. Then he became a second-round pick who played for seven NBA teams in six seasons. He won a ring in Boston as a deep reserve and finally found a steady job in Utah, a low-risk signing that turned into his best NBA season. Through all of it he's kept playing for Ukraine, including in the years since Russia's 2022 invasion.
A teacher's kid from Cherkasy
Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk was born on June 10, 1997, in Cherkasy, a city on the Dnipro River about 190 kilometers south of Kyiv, per the Canadian Press via CBC. His mother, Inna, is a high school biology teacher and his father, Iurri, is a college history professor, per his Kansas bio. He's an only child, and both parents played sports: his mother basketball, his father soccer and volleyball, per KU Sports. That bio also says he lettered in soccer and ping pong at Cherkasy First City Gymnasia, and he speaks Ukrainian, Russian, and English.
Basketball took over early. From 2012 to 2014 he played for his hometown club, Cherkaski Mavpy (the Cherkasy Monkeys), in the Ukrainian SuperLeague, where he averaged 5.8 points as a teenager against grown men, per the Lawrence Journal-World's Tom Keegan. At the 2013 U16 European Championship he averaged 25.2 points and 8.0 rebounds and made the all-tournament team. Bill Self later summed up his childhood in one line, per KU Sports: "That was Svi's life over there. He trained all the time."
Lawrence at 17
The normal path for a European prospect is to sign a pro contract and stay home. Mykhailiuk's choice came down to Real Madrid or Kansas, and he picked Kansas. "Most of them try to stay there and make money," he told KU Sports in 2018. "That's just me. Every person's different. I just wanted to play NCAA."
Kansas assistant Kurtis Townsend met him at the 2014 Nike Hoops Summit, and the first conversation needed help, as he told GBH News:
"He didn't understand or speak very good English and neither did his dad or his coach, so we kind of had an interpreter. So, it was a long conversation, going back and forth."
He signed in May 2014 as a 16-year-old, per KU Sports, and turned 17 a few weeks before arriving in Lawrence. Is he the youngest player in Kansas history? Not quite: that same story says he'd be just the second Jayhawk to play at 17, after Mark Pellock in 1984-85. Kansas Athletics says he was the youngest player to start a game in the Bill Self era. That summer he also played for Ukraine's senior team at the 2014 World Cup in Spain, including 11 minutes against Team USA.
His first locker room was a blur. "When I got in there I didn't know what guys were talking about," he told KU Sports. "I was just sitting in my locker trying to understand it."
"Svi for 3" and the Duke shot
Self started him in six early games as a freshman and then pulled him back. He grew into the job year by year, and as a senior he averaged 14.6 points, when he started all 39 games, made second-team All-Big 12, and set Kansas's single-season record with 115 threes, per Kansas Athletics. He tested the draft in 2017 and came back.
His biggest college moment came in the 2018 Elite Eight against Duke. He'd missed three straight threes late in the game, and Devonte' Graham kept telling him to shoot. With 26 seconds left he hit one to tie it at 72, and Kansas won in overtime, 85-81. "Huge shot," Self said, per Tom Keegan. "Biggest shot of the game." He also guarded Duke's Marvin Bagley III all afternoon and finished with 11 points, 10 rebounds, and 5 assists. His line to Graham at the buzzer: "We did it, man! We're going to San Antonio for the Final Four."
Villanova ended the run in the national semifinal. Mykhailiuk left Kansas fourth on its career threes list.
Seven teams in six seasons
The Lakers took him 47th in the 2018 draft. Here's the tour:
- Lakers (2018-19): 39 games as a rookie. In February the Lakers traded him and a second-round pick to Detroit for Reggie Bullock, per ClickOnDetroit.
- Pistons (2019-21): His best season before Utah: 9.0 points and 40.4% from three in 56 games (27 starts) in 2019-20. In March 2021 Detroit sent him and a second-round pick to Oklahoma City for Hamidou Diallo, per NBA.com.
- Thunder (2021): 10.3 points in 30 games for a rebuilding team.
- Raptors (2021-22): A two-year deal (CBC) and 56 games. Toronto waived him in August 2022, right before EuroBasket, per Eurohoops.
- Knicks (2022-23): A partially guaranteed one-year deal, per Eurohoops, and 13 games at 3.1 minutes each.
- Hornets (2023): He was the throw-in that ended up in Charlotte in the four-team deal that sent Josh Hart to New York, per Hoops Rumors. Real minutes again: 10.6 points and 40.4% from three in 19 games.
- Celtics (2023-24): One year, 41 games, a lot of DNPs, and a championship.
Boston coach Joe Mazzulla gave his "stay-ready group" credit during the Finals run, per GBH News: "But there's moments where Svi helped win us games." Mykhailiuk hit a floater late in Game 1 against Dallas, and when Boston closed out the series he became the second Ukrainian to win an NBA title, after Slava Medvedenko with the Lakers in 2001 and 2002, per Rubryka.
Playing for Ukraine through the war
When Russia invaded on Feb. 24, 2022, Mykhailiuk was with the Raptors. He and Sacramento's Alex Len, the only two Ukrainians in the league at the time, posted a joint statement, per the Canadian Press via CBC:
"We categorically condemn the war. Ukraine is a peaceful, sovereign state inhabited by people who want to decide their own destiny. We pray for our families, friends, relatives and all the people who are in the territory of Ukraine."
That day Self said he'd heard from Mykhailiuk that his parents in Cherkasy were safe and that he hoped to get them out of the country soon, per KU Sports. We couldn't find any public reporting on where his family is now, and we're not going to guess.
Six months later, without an NBA contract, he led Ukraine to the round of 16 at EuroBasket 2022, averaging 17 points, per Eurohoops. In the 2024 Finals he talked about what his success meant back home, per GBH News:
"I feel like it gives people joy back home who supports basketball, who follows basketball. I feel like just giving a light to look up to something and make them happy in any way. Just knowing that I'm from Ukraine and I made it out here."
It hasn't all been smooth. He missed Ukraine's early World Cup pre-qualifiers, and former national coach Ainars Bagatskis suggested the NBA players had ignored the call-up. In April 2026 Mykhailiuk called that a distortion of reality and said the staff knew he was treating a foot injury. He said the issue was settled after talks with federation president Mykhailo Brodskyi, per RBC-Ukraine (citing Sport.ua, translated from Ukrainian).
Then came his best summer for Ukraine. He scored 26 in 18 minutes in a warm-up win over Lithuania (Eurohoops), then a national-team-record 30 in a 99-69 qualifier win at Denmark on July 5 (Eurohoops). The Ukrainian Basketball Federation counts four games this summer at 23.5 points, and Ukraine leads its 2027 World Cup qualifying group with six wins. At Jazz media day he told the federation it was great to be back, that summer games kept him in real basketball shape, and that qualifying would put Ukraine in the World Cup for only the second time (translated from Ukrainian). The first time was 2014, with a 17-year-old Svi on the roster.
Why Utah
Utah signed him in August 2024, two months after the title, to a four-year, $15 million deal, per the Deseret News. Most of the money wasn't guaranteed, so it was a low-risk bet. After an uneven first season (38 games, 34.5% from three), the Deseret News pointed out that Utah could easily waive him to make room for draft picks. Instead the Jazz kept him, and 2025-26 was his best NBA season: 9.4 points on 47.8% shooting, 40.8% from three, and 41 starts in 50 games.
On Nov. 5, 2025, in Detroit, he scored a career-high 28, topping the 27 he'd scored at Kansas in 2017 and again with Utah the season before, per the Deseret News. Lauri Markkanen, who first saw him dunking in warmups at a 2015 youth tournament and now shares an agent with him, said: "he's kept his mind right, and keeps working." Will Hardy's take:
"Desperation is a heck of a thing. I think he models really good professional behavior for our young players, because Svi is in a moment where, like you look at his contract and he's playing for something. ... He doesn't make it about himself. He really gives himself to the group."
His $3.85 million salary for 2026-27 became fully guaranteed on June 30, and Utah has a $4.025 million team option for 2027-28, per Hoops Rumors.
The preseason has been mixed. He hit three threes in his first nine minutes of the opener in Boulder (our recap), then went 3-of-14 in the home rematch, closed out on by Bagley, the same player he guarded in the Duke game eight years earlier. Against San Antonio he had 7 points, 7 rebounds, and a team-high +18 in 19 minutes, and Hardy used him in the first-half nine (our recap).
Role
Svi is the veteran wing who can go weeks without playing and then hit shots right away. He shot 40.8% from three last season, he's 6-7, and he makes quick decisions so the ball keeps moving. He'll guard bigger players when asked, which goes back to the Bagley game. Right now he's in Hardy's first-half rotation with Bailey, Collier, and Sensabaugh, ahead of Josh Okogie and Josh Green.
2026-27 prediction
Our take: the starts are gone for good with Peterson and Bailey here, and his minutes will move around now that Sensabaugh is back. We see about 50 games at 15-18 minutes, 7 points, and threes in the 37-39% range. The bigger question is next summer. A $4 million team option on a 30-year-old shooter is easy to pick up, and Ukraine's World Cup push means he'll come back to camp in game shape again.
Sources: Kansas Athletics, KU Sports / Lawrence Journal-World (2014 column, 2016, 2017, Duke game, 2018, 2022), GBH News, CBC / Canadian Press, ClickOnDetroit, NBA.com, Eurohoops, Hoops Rumors, Rubryka, RBC-Ukraine, Ukrainian Basketball Federation, Deseret News, and NBA.com box scores.