DAVID VANTERPOUL sits in the cozy lobby of the Relais Monaco Hotel in Treviso and chuckles at us journalists. Like, it’s not easy for you to look for a hero in CSKA - in every match a hero can be a new one. In general, here in Europe, starryness is perceived differently. It’s in the NBA that many have been labeled superstar for a long time - and try to take it away. And in the Old World, and especially in CSKA, this concept, according to Vanterpool, is quite arbitrary. “The same Papaloukas, almost the brightest player in Europe, plays with us differently than in the Greek national team. In order to bring the team invaluable benefits, he does not need to make 25 throws and play 35 minutes - sometimes ten is enough.”
David is 33, and he is not shy about the word "veteran" applied to him. The intonations of his voice are smooth, like the lines of a basketball marking, but they in him betray rather the restraint of the person who has seen the views than the boredom. His track record has enough championship titles (American KBA, championships of China, Italy, Russia and the Euroleague), but Vanpool calls his main achievement in basketball that he still receives a lot of emotions and pleasure from basketball. In his life there were 11 teams from four continents, and for each he finds kind words, such as "it was an important step in my career." He knows the price of steps - not only in the career, but also in the most literal sense. With this set of knee injuries, not everyone would be able to walk, few would play, and no one would enjoy the game.
“WHEN MESSINA offered to fill the last vacant job with David Vanterpool, I was surprised,” recalls the story of Vanterpool’s invitation last summer, CSKA President Sergei Kushchenko. “We had candidates brighter. But Messina was persistent. As a result, Vanterpool fully met our expectations in a gaming sense and great excelled them in the human. " Kushchenko recalls an episode of last winter when Vanterpool was going on a trip to the United States long ago approved by the club for the ceremony of introducing his shirt to the University Hall of Fame (such moments are always very important for American basketball players), but David Andersen “broke”. Vanterpool himself, without any advice, decided to abandon the trip and stay with the team at a difficult moment. “He is the real leader of the locker room, like Seryoga Panov,” Kushchenko continues. “One of those rare basketball players who brings a few points to the team’s piggy bank even before it enters the court.
“When you look at a person who goes to the court with such knees, you cannot help but be surprised,” Panov himself says about Vanterpool. “After all, this happens contrary to medical science and common sense. And Vanterpool not only comes out, but also plays. And he plays great ! "
Vanterpool is compared with Panov not only in terms of personality, but also in terms of playing qualities. Say, the same inconspicuous-looking player comes out in difficult moments and makes a result. Panov smiles: “Well, yes, both of our movements are inconspicuous, the technique is dull. At the same time, David is able to surprise and confuse the opponent with these very movements. And then he can also“ eat ”on the defensive, where he is especially strong. disadvantages. "
Vanterpool did not plan to BECOME A BASKETBALL PLAYER - as a child, he was fond of American football. “Basketball chose me myself,” Vanterpool laughs. “At first I played it solely for a change, because I had no prospects because of my short stature. In the second year of high school, it was only 175 cm. But in the summer I went to I’m native to the Virgin Islands, and returned to school already 188 centimeters. A year later, the same situation: I went to the Virgin Islands, returned back - 196 cm. Naturally, I played in the graduation class more successfully and attracted the attention of university scouts. "
We talk about life and career, relatives on the islands, which have their own pretty team and even one indisputable basketball superstar - Tim Duncan, who chose to play for the United States. David assures that even there they are no longer afraid of American stars and without a shadow of irony compares the device of CSKA with the NBA samples. The verdict renders this: they are similar. And he focuses on sincerity: "Here, at CSKA, any player can go to the club president and ask for help in solving any problems. Or even play a trick on him." “For the whole season I called Vanterpool Mister Steal or Mister Rebound, depending on whether - in interceptions or rebounds - were his last exploits,” says Sergey Kushchenko. “And David laughed off, calling me Mr. Hand Signing Contracts.” With his arrival, the little-known St. Bonaventure College returned to the list of places on the basketball map of America where rivals are afraid to visit. Now the modest David describes any of his previous successes with the modest "played well." Decipher: elected the all-symbolic five of the conference; became the owner of several university records; Vanterpool's shirt is hanging under the arches of the arena there.
To achieve the main starting point in the life of an American basketball player, this, however, was not enough - he was not selected for the NBA draft. Moreover, instead of a good club - if not in the States, then at least in Europe - David had to go to Gorizia from the second Italian division. Waiting for Vanterpool turned out to be too long, believing that at least someone would need his services at home. Time passed, no proposals were received, legionnaire vacancies were filled. As a result, “Gorizia” was still a good option. "Then, in 1995, I did not know anything about European basketball. But I was lucky. At Gorizia I was treated very warmly." For which I would like to thank the Italians from us - they could have completely discouraged the young guy from becoming a professional basketball player.? The hopes and disappointments of next summer turned out to be similar. Again waiting until it stops, silence in America and departure to China, exotic for basketball. Agent underworked? “I don’t want to blame anyone,” Vanpool says peacefully. “If you didn’t call a club, then you didn’t deserve it. Yes, and this couple of years in China really benefited me.” And then again about important career steps.
“And in '99 from Maryland, where I grew up, my younger comrade Steve Francis was called to the NBA,” Vanterpool recalls. “And I decided that I also needed to try and remind myself at home. I replaced the agent by hiring Joel Bell, with whom I’m still cooperating. He showed me a real class of agency activity. " Soon, David already played in the form of the KBA club “Yakama Sun Kings” - and won the championship in it.
At the end of the 1999/2000 season, he could already choose from several offers from the NBA clubs and, flashing through the Detroit, ended up in Washington Wizards, which was then run by Michael Jordan as president of the club. At some point, His Highness decided to be also a basketball player - and it was his return that actually deleted Vanterpool from the team. It’s not so, in general, and it’s shameful to give up the struggle for a place in the lineup for Michael Jordan, but Vanterpool doesn’t respond to my smile with the most joyful arsenal of smiles. If he regrets something in his career, then it seems that it was precisely this step - in the NBA - that was not too broad. Moreover, immediately after the “Washington” health problems fell on Vanterpool - the whole mass of one of the “big” New Jersey players, who landed on his knee in one of the exhibition matches.
As a result, Vanterpool entered Venezuela: "There the season goes in the spring and summer, because many Americans go to Venezuela to go out in anticipation of something better." The best appeared first in the guise of the Italian “Avellino”, and then “Siena”, with which Vanterpool achieved his main - before CSKA - successes (championship in Italy, Euroleague Final Four, victory in the Super Cup). And, in fact, invitations to Russia.
This transition, however, was preceded by another knee injury and a complex operation. “Honestly, when David arrived in Moscow for the first time, we were shocked,” recalls Army fitness guru Igor Zavyalov. “With such injuries, sports are usually tied up. But we managed to find a consensus with Vanterpool and convince him to believe the doctors. In a short time he managed to change his biomechanics, technology, not only game-based, but generally motor-based. His movements, which seem strange to many, are specially designed to eliminate stress on problem areas. Among other qualities, Vanterpool had to show considerable yu will: we have developed a program that combines treatment and training, began at 8 am ".Itog known. Vanterpool in CSKA became synonymous with the word "reliability", and in the main battle of the season - with Maccabi for the Euroleague title - became the hero of the third, crucial quarter. "Vanterpool is the most obvious example of Messina's insight,” says Panov. “For most of the coach’s season criticized for the inappropriateness of its acquisition. But how David shone at the final stage of all the tournaments in which we participated! Probably, CSKA would have won something without him. But, I think, not all. "
“Frankly, we didn’t really expect that David would be able to go on the court in every match,” Zavyalov continues. “We thought we would only use it from time to time. In fact, Vanpool became stronger with each match and gave an amazing finish game of the season.After going through the recovery process, David joined the team training and somehow after one of the training sessions, when the partners had already left the court, he picked up the ball, accelerated and pushed it fiercely on top! You should have seen how Messina shone: now everything will be fine in order ".
On October 7, David Vanterpool will have a new chance to remind himself of the NBA - in the Moscow match against the Los Angeles Clippers. Surely for him he will mean a lot. Something like a rematch. “Well, no, revenge is too big a word,” says Vanterpool. “And a little inadequate to my mood: losers are rematching, but I don’t think so. The match with Clippers will be another occasion to please the fans. Well, of course, to enjoy it yourself "
NIKOLAY TSYNKEVICH