Russia national basketball team

Early history (1992–2000)

The history of post-Soviet basketball in Russia dates back to 1992. The head coach back then was Yuri Selikhov. The first major tournament team Russia participated was the EuroBasket 1993 in Germany. The roster included famous players of the USSR era, among them Sergey Bazarevich, Dmitry Sukharev. Russia became runners-up, losing in the final to Germany, 70-71.^[1]

Sergey Belov became the new head coach after the EuroBasket. Team Russia debuted at the 1994 World Cup, reaching there the final, losing only to the United States, 91–137. At the EuroBasket 1995, team Russia took the 7th place, but two years later they managed to claim the bronze medal. At the 1998 World Cup, Russia repeated their success of the last cup.

The last tournament under the guidance of Belov was the EuroBasket 1999 in France. Team Russia was top of its group in the preliminary round, only losing to the Spaniards. In the quarterfinals, the Russians lost to the Italians, and in the classification matches defeated Germany, but lost to Lithuania in the fifth-place match.

Decline (2000–2006)

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. Russia lost two matches in the preliminary round and got to the quarterfinals from the bottom of the group, losing there to USA, 85-70. In the classification rounds, Russia lost to Canada, 86-83, in two overtimes, finishing the Games 8th-placed. At the EuroBasket 2001, the Russians took the overall 5th place. In the preliminary round, team Russia won two out of three matches, defeating Bosnia and Herzegovina, Greece but losing to Italy. Russia qualified for the quarterfinals as top of the group, but lost there to Spain, 62-55. Russia won both matches in the classification phase, defeating Latvia and France. At the 2002 World Cup in Indianapolis, they took the 10th position.

In 2002, Sergey Elevich was the new head coach until 2003, when he was replaced by Sergei Babkov,^[2] who also coached for two years. However, Russia played poorly during this time, producing no outstanding results.

Blatt era (2006–2012)

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.

Team Russia won the EuroBasket 2007, defeating the host nation Spain. 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. In the last one and a half minutes Spain led by five points, but then Blatt took a timeout and Russia decreased the gap. In the last three seconds J. R. Holden threw a difficult shot and Russia led by one point. After head coach of Spain took a timeout one second later, Gasol threw a two-point shot but failed to make a point; Russia won 60-59.^[3] Andrey Kirilenko was named MVP of the tournament.^[4]

At the 2008 Olympics, the Russian roster consisted of strong players. In the first match they defeated Iran, but then lost to Croatia, Lithuania, Australia and Argentina. In the group phase Russia took the fifth position and finished their performance. In EuroBasket 2009, team Russia was without its leader Kirilenko and Holden for personal reasons,^[5] and Victor Khryapa due to injury.^[6] They were replaced by young players Fedor Dmitriev, Egor Vyaltsev and Kelly McCarty. The Russians lost in the quarterfinals to Serbia, finishing 7th.

On 12 December 2009, Russia got a wild card for the 2010 World Cup.^[7] In the preliminary round, Russia finished second in its group after defeating Puerto Rico, the Ivory Coast and Greece, but failed to win against Turkey. In the eightfinals, they beat New Zealand, but finished their performance in the quarterfinals, losing there to the Americans, 79-89. Russia just like in the last EuroBasket finished 7th after losing to Argentina and defeating Slovenia.

The bronze medalists of the EuroBasket 2011

Russia participated at the EuroBasket 2011, winning 10 of 11 matches. They failed to reach the final after losing to France. In the bronze medal game, Russia in a tight game subdued Macedonia. Kirilenko was named to the All-Tournament Team.^[8]

Notwithstanding their third place, Russia did not directly qualify for the 2012 Olympics in London, but qualified instead through the qualifying tournament in Venezuela in early July 2012, where they did not lose a single match.

Quarterfinal match between Lithuania and Russia

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.^[9]

...We created a great team. 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. Gold in EuroBasket 2007, bronze in the last year and this Olympic bronze.^[10]

— David Blatt

On 30 October 2012, Blatt decided not to coach the national team anymore.^[11]

Corruption in the RBF and dramatical decline (2012–2016)

In late December a new head coach was chosen, Bilbao Basket coach Fotis Katsikaris.^[12] 19 July 2013, three days before the training for the outcoming EuroBasket 2013, he decided not to coach the national team.^[13] On the next day he published an open letter in which he explained his decision. He felt that his actions were met with opposition from the administration of the Russian Basketball Federation, especially from acting president Yulia Anikeeva (the future president of the RBF who was arrested in 2016 for corruption^[14][15]), and criticized the dismissal of general manager Oleg Ushakov.^[16]

Katsikaris was replaced by Vasily Karasev. Losing 4 out of 5 matches in the preliminary round against Italy, Greece, Sweden and Finland (only winning against Turkey), team Russia finished in 24th place at the EuroBasket 2013, the worst ever result. Karasev was replaced by Evgeny Pashutin on 29 November 2013.^[17]

A vast majority of basketball players declined participating in the outcoming EuroBasket 2015, including Timofey Mozgov, Sergey Karasev, Pavel Podkolzin, Alexey Shved, Evgeny Voronov, Artem Vikhrov, Evgeny Valiev and Sergey Tokarev. Anton Ponkrashov and Egor Vyaltsev were initially dismissed from the team,^[18] but then returned. FIBA in the last moment allowed team Russia to participate in spite of the disqualification of the RBF.^[19] Russia lost four matches in a row to Israel, Poland, Finland and France, and so failed to qualify for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro; they finished 17th.^[20] Pashutin resigned on 29 October 2015.^[21]

An executive committee of the RBF on 20 January 2016 named a new head coach, Sergey Bazarevich.^[22] Russia planned to prepare for the EuroBasket 2017,^[23] but FIBA suspended the RBF in July 2015.^[24][25] However, later their membership was restored in November 2015.^[26] Their disqualification was annulled in late May 2016,^[27] and in September 2016 team Russia qualified for the EuroBasket.^[28]

Return to the European elite (2016–)

At the EuroBasket 2017, Russia defeated four out of five opponents (Turkey, Serbia, Belgium and Great Britain) in the preliminary round, losing only to Latvia. In the eightfinals Russia crushed Croatia breaking the 100 points mark and in the quarterfinals closely defeated Greece to enter the semifinals. Serbia did not let Russia reach the final, winning 87–79. The bronze medal match contested between Russia and Spain was won by Spain, 93–85.

Current roster

Roster for the EuroBasket 2017.^[29]

The following is the Russia roster in the men's basketball tournament of the 2017 EuroBasket.

Russia men's national basketball team – 2017 EuroBasket roster
Players	Coaches
Pos. No. Name Age – Date of birth Height Club Ctr. SG 1 Shved, Alexey 7004104850000000000♠28 – (1988-12-16)16 December 1988 1.98 m (6 ft 6 in) Khimki SG 4 Baburin, Evgeny 7004110160000000000♠30 – (1987-07-04)4 July 1987 1.90 m (6 ft 3 in) Lokomotiv Kuban G 7 Fridzon, Vitaly 7004116440000000000♠31 – (1985-10-14)14 October 1985 1.95 m (6 ft 5 in) CSKA Moscow PF 8 Ivlev, Vladimir 7004100460000000000♠27 – (1990-02-28)28 February 1990 2.07 m (6 ft 9 in) Lokomotiv Kuban SF 11 Antonov, Semen 7004102710000000000♠28 – (1989-07-18)18 July 1989 2.02 m (6 ft 8 in) CSKA Moscow PF 12 Zubkov, Andrey 7003956000000000000♠26 – (1991-06-29)29 June 1991 2.05 m (6 ft 9 in) Lokomotiv Kuban PG 13 Khvostov, Dmitry 7004102370000000000♠28 – (1989-08-21)21 August 1989 1.90 m (6 ft 3 in) Lokomotiv Kuban C 15 Mozgov, Timofey 7004113690000000000♠31 – (1986-07-16)July 16, 1986 2.16 m (7 ft 1 in) Los Angeles Lakers PF 20 Vorontsevich, Andrey 7004110030000000000♠30 – (1987-07-17)17 July 1987 2.07 m (6 ft 9 in) CSKA Moscow SG 22 Kulagin, Dmitry 7003919200000000000♠25 – (1992-07-01)1 July 1992 1.97 m (6 ft 6 in) Lokomotiv Kuban PG 30 Kulagin, Mikhail 7003842800000000000♠23 – (1994-08-04)4 August 1994 1.92 m (6 ft 4 in) CSKA Moscow SF 41 Kurbanov, Nikita 7004112880000000000♠30 – (1986-10-05)5 October 1986 2.02 m (6 ft 8 in) CSKA Moscow	Head coach Sergei Bazarevich Assistant coach(es) Saša Grujić Boris Sokolovskiy Sergei Bykov Legend Club – describes last club before the tournament Age – describes age on 31 August 2017

Depth chart

Notable players

Andrei Kirilenko, former captain of Russia

• Sergei Panov: 2006 EuroLeague champion.
• Jon Robert Holden: FIBA EuroBasket 2007 champion.
• Andrei Kirilenko: Was the youngest European basketball player to be drafted, FIBA EuroBasket 2007 champion, and MVP; FIBA Europe Player of the Year in 2007. Flag bearer at 2008 Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony for Russia.
• Victor Khryapa: Portland Trail Blazers and Chicago Bulls (NBA), FIBA EuroBasket 2007 champion.

Head coach position

• Yuri Selikhov – 1992–1993
• Sergei Belov – 1993–2000
• Stanislav Eremin – 1999–2002
• Sergey Elevich – 2003–2004
• Sergei Babkov – 2004–2005
• David Blatt – 2006–2012
• Fotis Katsikaris – 2012–2013
• Vasiliy Karasev – 2013
• Evgeny Pashutin – 2014–2015
• Sergey Bazarevich – Since 2016

Past rosters

Manufacturer

1993: Reebok
2015: Adidas^[30]

Sponsor

2015: Norilsk Nickel^[30]