The President of the VTB United League gave an interview to the Lokomotiv Kuban press service during the big break of Game 3 of the semi-final series against CSKA.
- Sergey Valentinovich, you're here with a pleasant mission: to award Vsevolod Ishchenko the title of best young player of the VTB United League. What's his most important quality?
- Vsevolod is undoubtedly a talent. He makes mistakes sometimes, like any young player, but his potential is phenomenal. At such a young age, to show, perhaps not so consistently, but such a mature game... The first game of the semifinals in Moscow was especially impressive. Vsevolod doubled up and made excellent passes, quickly breaking away. Even today—did you notice?—how quickly he ran the length of the court chasing Cleveland and managed to block a shot? Even Usain Bolt would probably envy such tempo.
- There was some serious competition for the best young player title this season, wasn't there?
- Yes. On the one hand, Lokomotiv keeps the Best Young Player award firmly for many seasons in a row. Their academy regularly produces exceptional players. And this season has once again seen the discovery of a new talent. But you're right that, having seen Lokomotiv, many clubs are starting to implement similar programs. BETCITY PARMA's management began giving playing time to Gleb Firsov and Lev Svinin, and these players have begun to develop fast. Patience is essential in such matters, so it's crucial that the organization is prepared. A special thanks goes out to Andrey Vladimirovich Vedishchev for this. At Lokomotiv, they sometimes even risk the first team's results to develop talented players. I think that if the national team were to return to international competition today, half of the Russian team would be graduates of the Krasnodar academy.
- How do you like the current semifinal series?
- The very first game, which took place in Kazan, set a great pace for the semifinals. We see that the playoffs are a completely different game. Especially in Moscow, when Lokomotiv showed an active defense at the start of the series that CSKA wasn't prepared for. There was a lot of contact, a lot of smart decisions. This is the kind of basketball we love. And I think there's still a lot to be said in both sets. Everyone will have time to play well, get to know each other so well that a lot will come down to the bench.
- One more question: for what do you love basketball?
- Perhaps we should go back a few decades. In seventh or eighth grade, a physical education teacher who had played basketball came to our school in Perm. When we started going to his classes, I absolutely loved the things he said: I'm looking one way, but passing the ball the other way. This opened up a whole new side of basketball for me. Not just shooting, but the possibility of being creative. Much later, I learned that the world chess champion Botvinnik was once asked, "If not chess, what sport would you play?" And he replied, "Basketball is the next smart game after chess." Look at how many variations there are in modern basketball. It gives players of every position, the entire lineup, the opportunity to make unique decisions on the court and create beautiful combinations. That's why I love basketball – it's a smart game, beautiful, and it develops very dynamically.
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