By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
The sports culture in the old continent is not always friendly to those kinds of events and some of the biggest leagues around Europe don’t want to host a game that looks like the poor relative to the real NBA thing.
So it’s refreshing that the VTB United League took that bold step and made a memorable event. Eurohoops was there with Aleksander Nevgoda covering the game and here’s what we liked the most!
The Bolshoy Ice Dom
The multi-purpose indoor arena of Sochi, Russia was primarily constructed to host hockey competitions during the 2014 Winter Olympics. It’s also the home of HC Sochi, a hockey team. But it’s also ideal for basketball. Not only is the arena’s exterior distinguished by its LED-illuminated roof, which its designers described as resembling fabergé eggs and frozen water droplets, but also it seems that this can be a good time for Sochi to get a VTB club. After the all, the stands were full!
Janis can dunk
Many dunk contests are not living up to the hype, even during the NBA All Star Games. But VTB had Janis Timma and he can really dunk! His under the leg effort was great and worthy of the win in the contest. In the past Russia hosted an unforgettable dunk contest between James White and NBA All Star Game dunk winner Gerald Green and this year’s version was also amazing.
The MVP gets a monster SUV
A trophy is good but not enough for the MVP. So Andrey Vorontsevich of CSKA Moscow left the arena driving a brand new UAZ Patriot SUV. Not a bad prize and strong enough to curry the whole Russian Stars team at once!
Superfan Sergey Ivanov
Everyone knows that Barack Obama is a big basketball fan, but let us introduce you to Sergey Ivanov. He is former defense minister of Russia and former Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office until last August and he also lives for basketball! It’s only natural that he also served as the VTB president and now he has the honorary president position. You can also find him in CSKA Moscow’s gym.
This photo
Frank Elegar helping his daughter dunk! Move over Riley Curry
And what we disliked!
Of course, you have to be healthy in order to play in the All Star Game and that’s why missing Milos Teodosic was a huge blow! The basketball genius of CSKA Moscow makes passes fit to an All Star Game during regular contests, so we missed him badly!