Recently, all the Russian national teams used to come to Novogorsk and prepare for the upcoming matches there. But now the men’s team seems to have taken the notes of the legendary David Blatt: they have moved to Moscow and train at the Igrom, which is located next to the CSKA athletics stadium.
In fact, the room where the star team of Kirilenko, Khryapa, Money, Fridzon and the young Swede used to prepare for the big tournaments hasn’t changed much over the years. He still has the legendary gate that can send anyone straight from the basketball court to the street. From the height of the third floor. There are legends that once one of the players tried to run right in the middle of training, but miraculously stopped.
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— Andrey Gennadyevich, is this place still special for you? — Yes, it’s like a home stadium. It’s very nice to be here. And from what I remember, one of the amateur basketball leagues is moving here next year. There is a decent amount of seating here. Quite spacious room. All as needed.
– Is the organization of life of the current national team very different from those times when David Blatt was the head coach, and Andrei Kirilenko was still a player? — I think the organization is more or less the same. We still try to meet a lot of standards when the national team gets together and starts preparing. We create normal conditions for training. It was the same with David in this regard. There were never any complaints. It is clear that here the composition is younger. In Blatt’s team we had youngsters and veterans, but here is a completely young team.
– Even here, in open training, you have already been asked many times about the difficulties associated with the lack of international practice of our teams. But are you still optimistic? – In fact, we have been living in the complexity mode not for the last year and a half, but for four years. Before there was a coronavirus, and for four years we have lived in anti-crisis mode. It’s like a fact. I don’t understand why they try to do something like this “but tell me more…” stuff all the time. Everything is already said. This is a fact. Just hang in there and live with it. You understand: this is so, and that’s it. And you try to find the maximum number of positive moments and focus on them.
Andrey Lopatin and Alexander Chadov at the training of the Russian national team
Photo: RFB
It is clear that without the “international” it is impossible to be better in the long run. But if not, then you need to pay more attention to yourself. Do your best to make your championship interesting. So that more young players come. So that more commands appear. To create more jobs. Actually, this is what is happening. Two new teams have appeared in the VTB League. There were 24 new places on the site. Two teams also promoted to the first division. This is if we are talking about the male leadership.
Last season we already saw how the young players began to calmly take the initiative and responsibility. The same “Lokomotiv-Kuban” gave a great segment in the championship final. And these guys – Shcherbenev, Kvitkovskikh, Yemchenko, Martyuk – are here at the training ground. They recently beat CSKA in the playoffs.
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I like all of the above. There are small steps forward. While small. But I believe that the soil conducive to growth exists. Even in these conditions. It is clear that I would like something more. I want an international “escape”. And I am sure that if we were in the international movement now, we would compete with this team in the World Championships. Because a year and a half ago we were first in the qualifying group and everything went well for us. Just like the women’s team had to perform in Australia. But this is rhetoric now.
– Is the agreement of two friendly matches with Iran in Perm a success for the RFB? – Definitely! Of course, it’s good when we play Belarus. These are big matches and good fights. But you get tired when you only have one opponent. Naturally, you want to get some kind of different style. And in this sense, it’s great that the Iranian team found a window in their training program to fly to Perm with us.
Open training session of the Russian basketball team
Photo: RFB
– Was it difficult to agree? – There is no agreement, but it was difficult logistically. Since it was necessary to change all the technical details, the plans were drawn up. This is a team that participates in the World Cup, and it was not so easy to find time to come to two matches at once. And in terms of human communication, contact, no problem. We are in contact with my Iranian colleague and we will see him in Perm soon.
– Will two games with Iran allow you to better understand the strength of our team? – The boys will have more opportunities to show themselves. They can give free rein to their emotions. It’s fine for training, but you need some final chord where you can show off what you’ve learned. And Perm in this regard will help evaluate our guys. It is very important to avoid any underestimation of the opponent. This is a strong team. Do not give in to stereotypes and think that the Asian team cannot be strong. Great team. Play good basketball. A participant in the World Cup a priori deserves respect.
– In August 2019, the Russian team just lost to Iran in Moscow. “There can be no understatement here. And it will be interesting for Perm fans to look at the game itself from the point of view of the sports component.
– In that game, our team was almost single-handedly trampled by the legendary veteran of the Iranian national team Hamed Haddadi, who had a double-double: 26 points and 14 rebounds. Do you know if he will come? I don’t know, I’ll have to look at the list.
August 4, 2019. Moscow. Russia – Iran. Andrei Vorontsevich in attack
Photo: Alexander Safonov, “Championship”
How well do you know him? You were playing in the NBA at the same time. – Yeah, he just played in Memphis. But in 2019 he was in the ranks and really destroyed us before the World Cup. An excellent center with experience in the NBA, Olympic Games, World Championships. Now the uncle is already a veteran. But when you are almost 220 cm tall…
— Everyone knows that Perm is a basketball city. But, which cities are still in the field of vision of the basketball federation? – If we talk about the expansion of the geography of cities, then here we are waiting for the reverse dynamics. Reactions of the cities. We are ready to bring in the national team. We don’t have many games though. Of the last cities that I personally liked – Suzdal. I would gladly bring the women’s team there. There is a very nice room there. There is not such a large capacity, but it is very nice. And having a match in one of the historical centers of Rus can turn out to be big and beautiful.
The Russian team trains in Moscow until August 3, then it will travel to Perm and continue preparations for two matches with Iran, which will take place on August 7 and 9.
