Russian basketball was destroyed in five days. Now no Euroleague, no top clubs – I Feel Devotion – Blogs
Even if it doesn’t matter anymore.
Euroleague criticized for sluggishness
🇱🇹Zalgiris shows support and love for 🇺🇦Ukraine before the match #Euroleague pic.twitter.com/qvTxLu1Efd
— Dainius Rumsha🇱🇹 (@imLuckyD) February 24, 2022
Here with such a roar the reader game in Kaunas on February, 24th. “Zalgiris” (going in last place) defeated “Real” (going in first), but the Lithuanian manifesto in support of Ukraine became the central event of the day.
Our hearts go out to our 🇺🇦 brothers. Glory to the heroes! 💙💛 pic.twitter.com/uMRSZnjr6K
— BC Zalgiris Kaunas (@bczalgiris) February 24, 2022
The horror of the normal there was already clear to everyone. Ĺ arĹ«nas JasikeviÄŤius’s Barcelona canceled a trip to St. Petersburg, Tony Parker warned his team that they would by no means fly to the game against Zenit on the upcoming ground, Ergin Ataman received an award but begged for peace, Ettore Messina showed up, but also pleaded for peace.
And only the front office of the Euroleague still could not decide. CSKA has already arrived at the arena, where he was supposed to play with Bayern. And only then, to the surprise of everyone, they announced that the match would not take place after all.
Later canceled games and other Russian teams.
The Euroleague was more difficult than other European sports organizations: Russian clubs, not just its participants, found that Russian clubs are very important for the main European tournament – both in terms of high stability (Norilsk Nickel, Gazprom, AK Bars Bank), and in terms of results ( in this case, all three teams had to play in the playoffs).
No decision was reached at the meeting on Friday.
Only Žalgiris disappeared with the Russians anyway – the Lithuanians were affected by the technical conveniences and only revolted when the Euroleague scared them with fines. To avoid this, Arvydas Sabonis connected political support in the Seimas.
The rest of the clubs agreed to present the match of the Russian team on a neutral ground. They were even ready to accept in Serbia.
By Monday, he joined that this was also impossible: by the beginning of the week, the airspace of the European Union was closed to Russia for aviation. The Russian decision clubs wanted to postpone the matches (and this issue) for a few more weeks, but the Euroleague was no longer a convenient request.
As of today, the participation of CSKA, Zenit, UNICS in the Euroleague and Lokomotiv in the Eurocup has been suspended. “In the event of an unfavorable development, all the results of the championship matches with the participation of the growing team will be canceled, the standings will be adjusted.”
Anadolu Efes, Monaco and Maccabi are now in the playoff zone.
“We are shocked by the terrible events that are allowed in Ukraine,” said Jordi Bertomeu. – Euroleague teams are covered in the deepest way by the society they use. In situations suited to what is happening today, we have an obligation to support people and express their beliefs.
Sport is not politics, and politics should not interfere with it, but we cannot remain indifferent, watching such a terrible manifestation of the crisis, which accounts for so many innocent people, and seeing the frequency that people all over Europe show to suspicion of Ukraine.
I want to make it clear that we do not blame the Russian clubs, their employees and employees for any of the events. However, unfortunately, the gravity of the situation has left us with no choice but to suspend all games involving the team, for the occasion, for the time being, and expect this situation to end as soon as possible.”
During these days, the Euroleague has become accustomed to criticize: in Europe, they reacted with incomprehension to such a long reflection and desire to play in the tournament at all costs. All these “we are observing the situation” are also incomprehensible … Actually, in Bertomeu’s quote it is obvious that he was still wanted by “people expressing support for the mood of Ukraine”.
The Euroleague also lost its share – both sponsors (VTB Bank), and the clear structure of the tournament, which took so long to achieve.
What’s next for social clubs
On January 25, Lithuanian journalist Jonas Miklovas wrote: “Given how the whole world responds, I can’t give a scenario for which Russian team will finish this season.”
Today he done the following prediction: “Here’s another guess for you: we will never see CSKA again with the cool players that they have had for the last 20 years. Now we will say goodbye to social clubs for a long time. No financial model was found behind them, it was a propaganda machine.”
Here’s a picture that’s a little clearer.
Russian basketball lunch before everyone else had time to dine.
Zielona Gora and Kalev left. The VTB International League finally became a fiction – only Tsmoki and Astana remained in it. With a sharp drop in the tournament level of the team level, the leadership of the league will no longer resist the entry of Russians from the superleague.
Very good Parma (now in fifth place) has lost the entire staff of Lithuanian coaches, who reflect this miracle.
Lokomotiv Kuban (seventh place) parted ways with vice-president Ginas Rutkauskas, who is used in the club for selection and emphasis on development.
Nizhny Novgorod (sixth place) lost Rolands Freimanis, the only legionnaire.
Top clubs and lost in chaos.
Jordan Lloyd, Tyson Carter, Conner Frankamp, ​​Mindaugas Kuzminskas and Arturas Gudaitis have already left Zenit. The club announced that it has allowed all foreign players to leave the team’s premises. And if nothing happens, then Zenit will play with the backbone in the form of Kulagin-Zakharov-Karasev-Zubkov-Pushkov and the youth team. Even if Javi Pascual is not going anywhere, he will not save anything.
CSKA has already lost Toko Shengelia, Joel Bolomboy, Iffe Lundberg, Johannes Voigtmann, Marius Grigonis and Kevin Pangos. Rumors persist that Dani Hackett, Will Clyburn and head coach Dimitris Itoudis will join them. But at the moment, the composition of the army will look like this: Swede-Hackett(?)-Kurbanov-Clyburn(?)-Milutinov and Khomenko-Freeman-Ukhov-Antonov-Ivlev in reserve.
Nothing is known about the loss of UNICS yet. Evgeny Bogachev said that they would let all the foreigners go, but without the foreigners, the Kazan people did not intend to claim anything at all. They retain only five Zaitsev-Uzinsky-Komolov-Vorontsevich-Klimenko.
He can never predict what the catastrophic consequences of financial disasters will be and what will have to happen for Russian sport to stop being a handshake. However, one thing is for sure: this era with the characteristic hit of CSKA, one of the richest clubs in Europe, in the Final Four really remains in the past. The collapse in Russian basketball just five days later illustrates in detail the abyss we have reached.
Even though it doesn’t matter anymore.
A photo: RIA News/ Alexey Maishev; VTB League/Ira Somova; VC/zenithbasket