Jump to navigation Jump to search This article is about the men’s team. For the women’s team, see Russia women’s national basketball team. The team came into existence after the dissolution of the Soviet Union and its basketball team. After Blatt left the staff, Russian national basketball russian women’s national basketball team a deep crisis due to corruption in the RBF and the federation’s conflict with FIBA.
The team performed poorly, partly due to a vast majority of top players rejecting participation. The history of post-Soviet basketball in Russia dates back to 1992. The head coach back then was Yuri Selikhov. Team Russia was top of its group in the preliminary round, only losing to the Spaniards.
Belov was replaced by Stanislav Eremin as the new head coach in the new century. Russia debuted at their first Summer Olympic Games, in Sydney, Australia, in 2000. In 2002, Sergey Elevich was the new head coach until 2003, when he was replaced by Sergei Babkov, who also coached for two years. However, Russia played poorly during this time, producing no outstanding results.
On 9 March 2006, the new head coach of the national team became American-Israeli David Blatt. The period under Blatt’s guidance is marked by some great moments. In the first quarter, the Russians were 10 points down, losing offensive and defensive rebounds and failing to counter Pau Gasol. Also their three-point throws were poor. However, in the last quarter the Russians came back. At the 2008 Olympics, the Russian roster consisted of strong players. On 12 December 2009, Russia got a wild card for the 2010 World Cup.
They failed to reach the final after losing to France. In the bronze medal game, Russia in a tight game subdued Macedonia. At the 2012 Olympics, Russia took the top position of its team, losing only to Australia with two points difference. Further they defeated Lithuania, but then lost to the Spaniards, 59-67. In the third-place match, Russia defeated Argentina, Olympic champion of 2004, 81-77.
Kirilenko became member of the All-Olympics Team according to ESPN. He was ranked third in blocks and steals, sixth in scoring and eighth in rebounding. It is one of the strongest in the world, it plays on the highest level. It took a lot of time to achieve this aim, we collected many talented players. The medals won at the Olympics created a new Russian history.
In the seven years of cooperation with Andrey Kirilenko and other people we won three medals. On 30 October 2012, Blatt decided not to coach the national team anymore. In late December a new head coach was chosen, Bilbao Basket coach Fotis Katsikaris. Katsikaris was replaced by Vasily Karasev. An executive committee of the RBF on 20 January 2016 named a new head coach, Sergey Bazarevich. In the eightfinals Russia crushed Croatia breaking the 100 points mark and in the quarterfinals closely defeated Greece to enter the semifinals. Date of birth Height Club Ctr.
