The VTB United League All-Star Game took place in Moscow
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On Sunday, the traditional “Star Game” of the VTB United League took place in Moscow. This time, the format of the competition included a confrontation between teams recruited by the head coaches of top Russian clubs – CSKA and Zenit – Emil Rajkovic and Javier Pascual, respectively. Pascual’s players were stronger in the colorful game. Jeremiah Hill put an end to the match, scoring six points with one shot (the format of the exhibition game included this), which brought his team a victory with a score of 134:120.
On Sunday, the now traditional “Match of Stars” of the VTB United League took place (the show was first held in 2017 in Sochi, a year later it was hosted by St. Petersburg, and since 2019 it has always been held at the VTB Arena). And the event, during which, in addition to basketball itself, the audience, who had bought up all the tickets a couple of weeks before the reporting date, and almost 10 thousand of them went on sale, was presented with a bright show program (it included a lot – from the performance of Katya Lel, who found a second wind hit “My Marmalade” before the performance of Boris Eifman’s ballet troupe), needless to say, it was a success.
The key difference from previous games came down to the team formation scheme.
The league moved away from the traditional division according to the “West-East”, “Russian versus foreign”, “experienced versus young” schemes and allowed two top coaches to select their teams from among the basketball players who had passed the preliminary selection. In fact, CSKA coach Emil Raikovich and the head coach of the current league champion UNICS Velimir Perasovich were supposed to lead the opponents, but the latter, after taking part in the draft, encountered some health problems, so he was replaced by the no less famous Javier Pascual , under whose leadership Zenit became the champion for the first time in its history the season before last.
Surprisingly, both coaches, although their behavior during the meeting was not at all reminiscent of how they act during combat meetings (both Rajkovic and Pascual are very emotional mentors), were not at all indifferent. Both even drew some diagrams that could help their teams.
However, even this for a long time did not help to escape the exhibition nature of the meeting. As a result, let’s say, Devon Akun-Purcell hit 11 shots from range on Raikovich’s team (he finished the match with 44 points and received the MVP award for the match). It’s hard to even admit that in a normal game the Lokomotiv-Kuban forward would be allowed to shoot from behind the arc so often, namely 22 times. As for Pascual’s team, the most productive (24 points) was CSKA forward Amat Mbaye. But the winners remember Jeremiah Hill the most. The Runa defender promised before the game that he would certainly be able to get six points with one throw. This was possible in this game: another one was hung a few meters above the main hoop, and the ball’s flight through each was assessed separately. So, in the last attack, Hill sent the ball into the top ring with a tall candle, flying past it and diving into the bottom one – 134:120 in favor of Pascual’s team.
She, by the way, received prize money – 3 million rubles.
Prize money, albeit six times smaller, was also awarded to the winners of traditional competitions – three-point shots and dunks. The favorite of the first was Zenit defender Thomas Ertel, but somehow the competition didn’t work out for him. But Yenisei defender Bo Beach’s throws went well, and it was he who got the prize. As for dunks, the jury rated the acrobatic abilities of Jordan Skipper-Brown from Astana above others.
“The atmosphere is very festive, all our ideas were a success. I am very glad that people once again smile, rejoice and are surprised at our All-Star Game. We managed to combine basketball and the show, and it’s very cool. With this show, we are doing excellent advertising for all basketball in Russia,” said Ilona Korstin, General Director of the VTB United League, to TASS. In turn, league president Sergei Kushchenko again made it clear that the league is not abandoning the idea of returning to the practice of holding games outside the capital. According to him, by the end of the season, options for hosting the game outside of Moscow should be determined.
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