The first season of the VTB United League was attended by 116 basketball players and 10 head coaches from 8 clubs. 14 of them went on the court or managed the teams in the 2019/20 season.
Let’s remind who represents the 2009/10 season in the United League in 2020:
Alexey Shved, CSKA
Stats: 1 game, 4 minutes on the court
Even though now Alexey Shved is one of the best players of the United League and Europe, the leader of the Russian national team and the unstoppable scorer. In the 2009/10 season, the 21-year-old guard was just beginning his basketball career.
Shved made his debut in the League in the first CSKA game in history and went on the court against Zalgiris. Alexey have not scored or given any assists, but CSKA got a confident victory of 90:74. This game was the only one for guard in the 2009/10 season of the VTB League.
In 2 years Alexey Shved moved to NBA.
Vitaly Fridzon, Khimki
Stats: 8 games, 9.4 points, 3.0 rebounds, 2.8 assists
In the first season of the League Khimki got into a tough group and at some point could not even make it to Final Four. With 4 victories in 6 games, they let UNICS ahead and the semi-final of Final Four ended up with game against CSKA.
It is interesting that in this semi-final Fridzon, who were spending his 6th season for Khimki, made his best game in the championship and scored 16 points in 22 minutes. However, this was not enough to crush the CSKA – Khimki lost being down by 5 points (66:71).
Andrey Vorontsevich, CSKA
Stats: 8 games, 5.9 points, 3.6 rebounds
Vorontsevich is the only player in the history of the United League who has participated in all 11 seasons while playing for the same team.
Forward became the main hero of the debut game of the 2009/10 season against Zalgiris (90:74), with 16 points and 6 rebounds he eventually became the first MVP of the tour in the history. Afterwards, Vorontsevich helped CSKA to become the first champion of the VTB Unified League.
Mantas Kalnietis, Zalgiris
Stats: 7 games, 8.7 points, 3.1 rebounds, 2.7 assists
If Zalgiris had not lost that much to CSKA at the start of the championship, the history of the 2009/10 season could have been written quite differently. The Lithuanian Grand could take the first place in the group and in the semi-final meet not UNICS, but more convenient opponent Khimki. Considering that Final Four was held in Kaunas, the final game with Zalgiris would have been completely unpredictable.
Nevertheless, the Lithuanians won the bronze of that season, and in this great merit of Mantas Kalnietis, who is now playing in Loko: in the game for the 3rd place against Khimki (78:72) the guard scored 10 points.
Nikita Kurbanov, CSKA
Stats: 5 games, 8.0 points, 3.4 rebounds
In 2020, Nikita Kurbanov was a CSKA starter player without whom CSKA could hardly be imagined. But in the 2009/10 season, the forward, who was barely 23 years old, never was a starter and only once spent more than 15 minutes on the court – then CSKA defeated Azovmash (98:69).
But Kurbanov used his minutes to his advantage: he attacked from the game with a sufficiently high percentage (73.9%) and was among the top 5 players of the CSKA in terms of efficiency, ahead of J. R. Holden and Trajan Langdon.
Anton Ponkrashov, CSKA
Stats: 6 games, 5.2 points, 1.0 assists
During the regular season, the Russian guard was not at the forefront of CSKA. However, in the semi-final with Khimki the coaching staff under the leadership of Evgeny Pashutin entrusted the big minutes on the court for 7 players, and Anton Ponkrashov became one of them.
The trust that was given to the 23-year-old point guard was justified: coming from the bench, Ponkrashov added energy to the CSKA game, gained important 10 points and made 2 equally important rebounds.
Uladzimir Verameyenka, UNICS
Статистика: 6 games, 8.5 points, 4.2 rebounds
Uladzimir Verameyenka is the most titled Belarusian in the history of the United League. Since the foundation of the League and during the 5 seasons, the forward has been playing for UNICS, being the ideal player fo the coaching staff: did not demand the ball, closed his paint, worked out the glass – in general, he was useful on both ends of the court.
In the semi-final against Zalgiris (75:65) Verameyenka spent 23 minutes on the court and realized both shots from the game and neutralized the big rivals.
Artem Zabelin, CSKA
Stats: 1 game, 5 minutes on the court
Just like for Shved, for Artem Zabelin season 2009/10 was only the beginning – the center debuted in League at the age of 21. It’s interesting that even then Zabelin was aimed to attack from beyond the arc – the only shot that 7 ft center made was a three.
Evgeny Pashutin, CSKA
Stats: 8 games, 7 wins
Evgeny Pashutin headed CSKA for one season. Actually, this season was historic: he became the first champion-coach of VTB United League.
The only loss in 2009/10 CSKA suffered from Zalgiris on the road – 63:67. Fortunately, via big victory in the first round (90:74) they managed to outpace the Lithuanians in table. 2nd time they were lucky in Final Four – Zalgiris lost to UNICS in semi-finals, thus the Moscow team didn’t feel fans pressure in Kaunas in finals.
Viacheslav Zaitcev, Khimki
Stats: 3 games, 0.7 points
2009/10 season was the first in guard’s professional career. Khimki’s coaching staff let 20-year old player participate in 3 games but only in the last game against UNICS the guard managed to score his first points in the League.
Year later, Viacheslav Zaitcev became VTB United League champion. and on All-Star Game 2019 he won slam-dunk contest.
Alex Renfroe, VEF
Stats: 6 games, 14.8 points, 4.7 assists, 4.2 rebounds
Alex Renfroe was VEF main star in 2009/10 season. He was a starter in every game, was first offensive option and was a Top-10 scorer in the League. He scored 28 and 30 points against Donetsk and Khimki, and in another game was really close to triple-double (28 points, 9 assists and 8 rebounds).
But VEF haven’t won a single game, finishing the season with 0-6 record in group A.
He took his first victory in League with Enisey in 2013/14 season – it was his accurate free throw that beat Nymburk (80:79). Alex spent 2019/20 season in Zenit.
Adas Juskevicius, Zalgiris
Stats: 6 games, 3.0 points, 1.3 rebounds
One more Lithuanian became the part of bronze Zalgiris, he returned to the League before 2019/20 season. Adas Juskevicius is one of the best PARMA’s players now, and back then he played in only 6 games in 2009/10 season.
His best game was against Kalev: 12 points, 4/8 3pt, 4 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 block and savage victory – 88:56.
Drazen Anzulovic, Donetsk
Stats: 6 games, 3 wins
Last Summer Drazen Anzulovic headed Enisey and surprised fans in the first game: his team beat CSKA for the first time in history. But only few people know that the Croatian has worked in the League earlier.
In 2009/10 season Donetsk could throw off Khimki from Final Four but after the defeat in the second game vs Khimki (68:78) their play-off chances fell markedly. After this game in December-2009 Donetsk head coach Ramunas Butautas was fired, ahd his place was taken by Drazen Anzulovic – 42years old specialist who is familiar to Russian fans for work in Ural. In decisive game for the Ukranian team against UNICS they loss with the difference of 8 points (77:85).
Tanel Kurbas, Kalev
Stats: 5 games, 3.4 points, 1.8 rebounds
Tanel Kurbas began his career pretty early: at the age of 17 be was playing in Estonian championship. The guard spent 2009/10 season in Kalev that lost each of the regular season games, so he decided to move to club-competitor.
By the way, in 2015 Kurbas led Tartu University to champions title and was announced the MVP of Estonian championship final. And during Summer-2018 he returned to Kalev, where he still plays.
