New times – new names: basketball Zenit won the first trophy of the season

According to a long-standing tradition, the new basketball season in our city was opened by the Vladimir Kondrashin and Alexander Belov Cup. The tournament, dedicated to the creators of the 1972 Olympic victory, has an interesting history.

A year after the untimely death of the author of the “golden” shot in Munich, in December 1979, a tournament of the strongest trade union teams of the USSR Championship Major League was held in Leningrad. The main prize was presented to the captain of Leningrad Spartak Yuri Pavlov by Maria Dmitrievna, mother of Alexander Belov. And after the fact the tournament was called the Belov Cup.

We had to wait 12 years for the next similar competition. In August 1991, Spartak again won the main trophy. In the decisive match, the St. Petersburg team defeated the team of the American George Washington University. Moreover, the game itself at Yubileiny was in danger of being disrupted. It was held despite the decree of the State Emergency Committee banning mass events.

After the death of Vladimir Petrovich Kondrashin, the Belov Cup acquired a new name. At the beginning of the 2000s, when Spartak St. Petersburg was going through difficult times, CSKA got involved in hosting it. The Moscow club, which at that time was one of the richest and most respected in Europe, brought Euroleague participants to St. Petersburg and achieved inclusion of the tournament in the official calendar of the International Basketball Federation.

For several years in a row, the Russian Basketball Federation held the Kondrashin and Belov Cup as a tournament for teams that were preparing for major international competitions. The competition gained nothing from this. More like lost. After all, while there are two specialized palaces in St. Petersburg where basketball matches can be held, teams played in an arena that could accommodate less than a thousand spectators.

Two years ago, Zenit took over the hosting of the Kondrashin and Belov Cup. Alas, Spartak, to which the legendary coach and great player gave their lives, no longer exists. At least, in the register of Russian professional clubs. The tournament became a pre-season again. In the final of this year, the VTB United League champion Kazan UNICS and Zenit met. For the preseason, both teams demonstrated a high level, although the St. Petersburg team did not have the main point guard Thomas Ertel, and the Kazan team had two American legionnaires.

Fans and experts were able to evaluate the level of the St. Petersburg team’s recruits. Zenit managed to retain the head coach of the Spaniard Javi Pascual. Although he was waiting for an offer from Barcelona, ​​which for any Catalan is an offer that cannot be refused. Moreover, the French club Monaco, which participates in the Euroleague, persistently invited Pascual. The arguments of the Zenit managers turned out to be more weighty.

Compared to last season, in which the St. Petersburg team lost both the playoff semi-final and the series for third place to CSKA, the team’s composition has strengthened. The American Kyle Kuric, already well-known to St. Petersburg fans, has returned, who in five years in Barcelona has not lost his sniper qualities, and under the shield of power must be added Vince Hunter, who won the VTB United League champion title in Kazan last season, and a participant in the recently completed World Cup Montenegrin Boyan Dubljevic. The castling of defenders also turned out to be in Zenit’s favor. In the summer, Georgy Zhbanov moved from Kazan to St. Petersburg, and Dmitry Kulagin followed in the opposite direction.

The final match, which kept basketball fans in suspense until the last seconds, ended with the victory of Zenit – 82: 77. There are no draws in basketball. Perhaps in the five-minute game that was played during the break in the final game of the Kondrashin and Belov Cup. Veterans of the women’s Spartak team, led by Alexandra Ovchinnikova, who recently celebrated her 70th birthday, and the men’s team of artists from St. Petersburg, led by Sergei Migitsko, who also recently celebrated his 70th birthday, came together on the site. Two seconds before the end of the match, after a three-point shot by the artist, the Spartak team lost 5:7, but Yulia Mironova managed to even the score.

Both in terms of the quality of basketball and the surroundings, the completed tournament deserves high praise. But practically nothing in the arena or in the foyer reminded of Vladimir Petrovich Kondrashin and Alexander Belov. Surprisingly, some modern basketball fans, whom the MK in St. Petersburg journalist addressed, knew nothing about them. Although they were ready to discuss coach Pascual and basketball player Ertel.

For many years, the Kondrashin and Belov Cup had a three-day format, and representatives of all teams went to the Northern Cemetery on the weekend to lay flowers at the graves of Kondrashin and Belov. Today only those who remember the legendary coach and basketball player, as well as the two heads of Zenit, went there. None of St. Petersburg’s guests found time for this.

The surviving winners of Munich, who were always indispensable participants in the opening and closing ceremonies, also did not come to the tournament. The author of the legendary pass, Ivan Edeshko, was invited from Moscow, but he is now undergoing treatment in a sanatorium. It is unnecessary to mention the reasons for the absence of Lithuanian Modestas Paulauskas and Ukrainian Anatoly Polivoda.