The fourth United league All-Star Game is almost in three weeks! The event will take place in Moscow at VTB Arena on February 16, and there are less and less tickets left.
We are recalling the first league’s All-Star Game.
What: The first all-time United league All-Star Game
Where: Bolshoy Ice Dome, Sochi
When: February 11, 2017
Number of spectators: 12 thousand
Russia All-Stars vs World All-Stars – 131:121 (45-40, 22-30, 36-28, 28-23)
Russia All-Stars: Dmitry Khvostov, Alexey Shved, Sergey Karasev, Victor Khryapa, Andrey Vorontsevich; Sergey Bykov, Evgeny Voronov, Evgeny Kolesnikov, Sergey Monia, Andrey Zubkov, Petr Gubanov, Vladislav Trushkin, Anton Ponkrashov
World All-Stars: Nando De Colo, Keith Langford, Danilo Anjusic, Janis Timma, Artem Parakhovsky; Stefan Markovic, Taylor Rochestie, Janis Blums, DeAndre Kane, Ryan Broekhoff, Nicholas Minnerath, Frank Elegar
Sold Out
The first VTB United League All-Star Game was decided to be held in Sochi, where the Winter Olympic Games took place 3 years before. The Bolshoy Sports Palace, built specifically for the Olympics, had never hosted basketball games before.
Nevertheless, the event caused a rush among basketball fans – 95% of the tickets were sold out a week before the All Star Game , and as a result there were no empty seats at Bolshoy.
Best Slam-dunk contest
Dunk contest became a decoration of the All-Star Game in Sochi. In the first round, Frank Elegar surprised with his agility. The center of Enisey circled the backboard from the back and dunked, and the TV presenter Maria Kommandnaya assisted him. However, this was not enough to reach the final, where Maxim Kolyushkin from Avtodor and Janis Timma from Zenit turned out to be.
Kolyushkin, who replaced the injured guard of Khimki Vyacheslav Zaitsev at the contest, went on the court in a uniform with the words Rostov-Father as a demonstration of his love for his native city.
But the winner was the Latvian forward: Timma performed the windmill, and then repeated the dunk of Zach Lavine with an auto-pass from behind the backboard.
A real dunk of the day
Star guest
L’One.
It’s no secret that rapper is a fan of the game and often attends basketball events. Levan, of course, could not miss the All Star Game, and he visited Sochi both as an artist and as a basketball player, having entered the Celebrity Game in a team led by Lev Leshchenko.
Best three-point shooter is Russian
Sergey Karasev might not have reached the final of the dunk contest: he and his teammate Demonte Harper scored 14 points each in a shootout, and only in the additional round he went further.
The company turned out to be serious and Karasev was definitely not a favorite in it: for Ryan Brockhoff from Loko and Janis Blums from WEF, shots from behind the arc was the main specialization on the court. However, Sergey impressed everyone in the final round where he gained a record 23 points.
Duel
Everyone was waiting for the shootout at the three-pointer competition – it was a success, although hardly anyone could imagine that Sergey Karasev would beat the more skilled snipers in the person of Ryan Brockhoff and Janis Blums. Everyone wondered how dunkers would surprise – and no one was disappointed with the flights of Janis Timma and Maxim Kolyushkin.
But could someone imagine that rapper L’One would challenge Alexey Shved for a duel?
Levan, who in his spare time from tours and rehearsals finds time for basketball practice, went to his round … in Alexey Shved’s jersey! The rapper was close to catching up with the leader of Khimki, but in the last throw the ball knocked on the hoop and jumped out of the basket.
The peak of this story was the appearance of Nikita Morgunov – the ex-center of Russian team appeared from the subtribe in the White Tiger shirt, but also failed to outplay Alexey Shved.
Fact
Before the start of the 2016/17 season, Sergey Bykov announced the retirement, but returned to help Saratov Avtodor. The guard was chosen to participate in the All Star Game – and he fit perfectly into the celebrative atmosphere.
In one of the episodes, Sergey Bykov burst into the “paint”, received a pass from Evgeny Voronov and slamed it in. This dunk was the last in a 17-year professional career as a guard.
MVP
Alexey Shved and Andrey Vorontsevich competed for the title of best player: the first scored 27 points, 8 rebounds and 7 assists, the second – 28 points and 7 rebounds. In the end, the title of MVP went to Andrei Vorontsevich, who turned out to be the most valuable basketball player of the night with 36 points. Forward of CSKA left Sochi on the new UAZ Patriot.
We remind, that All-Star Game 2020 will take place on February 16 at VTB Arena and will be Russia All-Stars vs World All-Stars. Tickets for All-Star Game are available on https://allstar.vtb-league.com.
Alexey Norman
