Actually, I love women's basketball. Only now in Russia to visit it yet somehow did not have to? No matter how much you want it, it’s impossible to find time for everything. Yes, and the girls are playing somehow too far. And here - on you, at your side, in the USK CSKA. How not to go?
TEAM WORLDWIDEFrom this sight it is difficult to expect otherwise. I am ready to subscribe to the words of the FIBA Europe authorities - Sergey Chernov and Nara Zanolin, who named the composition of the participants to the world teams. Only the representatives of Australia, the champions of the planet, were desperately lacking here. And the rest ... An incredible number of stars.
On Masha Stepanova, once again named the best basketball player in Europe, on the sidelines almost no attention is paid. And who are they turning to? Grab any girl - it will turn out to be a famous person. Tina Thompson quietly buys a sandwich in the buffet with her little son in her arms. If he retained youthful fan enthusiasm, he would have run to get an autograph from the four-time champion of the female NBA and the Olympic champion-2004. Here is another owner of Athenian gold - Diana Torazi - modestly sitting against the wall of the USK hall, neatly hiding her sprained ankle. Diana, by the way, is the best sniper of the past championship of the female NBA. There went, shaking numerous pigtails, Simon Augustus - the second sniper of the same championship and the best rookie overseas league. And the best NBA female selection expert Cheryl Ford proved this honorary title on the court by winning 17 bounces in the match for third place - it seems that all the balls bounce to Karl Malone’s daughter.
This is only American. The predecessors of Masha Stepanova on the post of the best in Europe - Belgian Anne Wooters and Polish Agnieszka Bibrzycka still came to the Moscow flooring. And many, many others.
OH MY AMAYA ...Huge personal sympathy - Amaye Valdemoro. Those who follow the matches of the national teams know: Amaya for Spain’s women's national team is about the same as Dirk Nowitzki for men's Germany. Valdemoro is a real leader, a player who knows how to score, pick, pass, intercept ... Almost the perfect basketball player. And in CSKA, she enters the game from the reserve. One can only assume what is happening in the soul of a hot Spanish woman.
Episode: running away a short period of time, Igor Grudin ordered Amaye to return to the bench. She, emotionally clasping her hands, walked past the coach, proudly turned away, sat down at the far end of the bench and angrily threw off the towel thrown by the staff from her shoulders. The next time, releasing Valdemoro to the site, Grudin did not dare to replace it for a long time ...
WALKER IS A WALKER?It was very curious to see how DeMaya Walker feels in European basketball. The reason is simple: the signature tricks of the Sacramento heavy forward under the ring are saturated with jogging. So Walker strives to take two steps, stop, and even quit, first tearing off his supporting leg from the parquet.
Nothing changed. DeMaya still walks freely with the ball under someone else’s shield. Russian judges are in no hurry to offend the American, but still no, no, but the violation will whistle. I specifically took an interest in statistics - DeMaya in the Russian Championship had 2.4 technical losses in 17 minutes on average. The highest score in the team.
True, Walker still looked great. Her exit instead of one of the “towers” (Stepanova - Wouters) certainly aggravated the game of CSKA.
SHORTS IS SHORT?Watch a couple of American women in the Moscow Dynamo, honestly, fun. Looking at Simon Augustus and Rebecca Brunson, two and a half assumptions arise. First: the girls came to basketball from a streetball court. It hurts smartly they start to beat, not even looking at what friends are doing. Second: they inherited shorts from the warehouse of the men's team - they did not fit Obinne Ekezi and Lazaros Papadopoulos. Painfully large seems the size. Another suggestion: the size of the shorts in Dynamo is proportional to the game numbers. At the “five” Oksana Rakhmatulina they are the most shorts. But the 32nd Brunson and the 33rd Augustus are more like pants.
NO ALREADY PIPES!FIBA-Europe Secretary General Nar Zanolin answered the question about the level of organization without hesitation, "Super!" It's hard to argue: it is unlikely that somewhere else in the world a women's tournament will be organized on such a scale.
But in the stands of the USK, coloring and filling resembling a matinee in kindergarten, a very unusual atmosphere. I did not immediately understand why. Then he guessed: pipes are not allowed at men's matches. There is such a buzz on the women’s in the motley hall that the head begins to hurt. Not in vain, in many countries, pipes are prohibited even on football, and not because they can be thrown on the field.
MAIN THING - DO NOT DROP THE CUPIt seems that we have already talked about the heaviness of the Cup of Russia on these pages. 20 kilos is not a joke. “It’s good that nobody fell on one’s leg,” Sergei Chernov summed up the award ceremony.
Now the Samara club has two tasks. One simpler thing is to share your share of the $ 50,000 prize pool. The second is more difficult - to decide what to do with the heavy Cup, handed to its owners forever and ever. Take to Samara? Is logical. But if in the summer the team is transported to Moscow, what, drag it back? Isn’t it easier to leave the male CSKA in the office?
ILONA - ONE FOR EVERYONENumerous fans will not forgive if there is not a word about Ilon Korstin at this place. By the way, called MVP "Final Four". It was interesting: why Ilona, popularly (and even officially!) Recognized as a symbol (if you like, a sex symbol) of women's basketball, was elected captain in the team, who simply due to the peculiarities of gender psychology must be mistrustful of such “upstarts”?
It seems that Ilona simply gets along wonderfully with everyone, including the obstinate Amaya, who is peacefully consulting with a Russian woman on the site. And she works out for everyone in post-match interviews. Sometimes it seems that cameras only notice her.
Nikolai TSYNKEVICH
SEE ALSO:
Maria Stepanova recognized as the best basketball player of the yearGive an Oscar! (Double Team Blog)