On February 14 in Moscow 5th VTB United League All-Star Game took place. Russia Stars beat World Stars – 183:162.
13 main stats of All-Star Game 2021 are presented here.
Alexey Shved lacks 2 rebounds for triple-double
Nobody has ever collected a triple-double in VTB League All-Star Games history. Khimki guard Alexey Shved was very close to this historic achievement.
In 22 minutes on the court Shved scored 22 points, 8 rebounds and 10 assists lacking only 2 rebounds for triple-double.
5 different countries are presented on All-Star Game
This year there were 5 different countries representatives on All-Star Game.
Besides 12 Russians and 7 Americans there were Spaniards (World Stars head coach Xavier Pascual and his assistant Inigo Zorzano), for the first time Canadian (Kevin Pangos) and Polish (Mateusz Ponitka) and also 3 Lithuanians, Mantas Kalnietis, Adas Juskevicius and Mindaugas Kuzminskas.
In 5 years at All-Star Games (no contests) there were 17 states represented: Russia, USA, Serbia, France, Latvia, Belarus, Australia, Virgin Islands, Spain, Gabon, Estonia, Senegal, Sweden, Lithuania, Mexico, Poland and Canada.
10 players made all of their 2-point attempts
It doesn’t happen in regular season games, 5 players from each team made all of their 2-pointers!
From Russia Stars there were Semen Antonov (4), Stanislav Ilnitskiy (4), Andrei Zubkov (3), Anton Astapkovich (3) and Vitaly Fridzon (3), from World Stars – Jordan Mickey (13), Drew Gordon (8), Mantas Kalnietis (4), Jamar Smith (3) and Mateusz Ponitka (1).
12 League teams were represented at All-Star Games and contests
12 of 13 VTB League teams were represented ar All-Star Game. The only team left is Zielona Gora that participated in Polish Cup and won it on February 14.
For the first time Enisey had 3 representatives at once at All-Star Game.
The team with the biggest number of representatives are Zenit (6 people – Fridzon, Zubkov, Volkhin, Pangos, Ponitka, Pascual) and Lokomotiv-Kuban (5 people – Ilnitskiy, Kalnietis, Kuzminskas, Gordon, Pashutin).
14 assists by Viacheslav Zaitcev
Khimki guard Viacheslav Zaitcev had the biggest number of assists at All-Star Game, 14 and that is All-Star new record. By the way, Zaitcev scored only 4 points.
Most assists Zaitcev gave to Vitaly Fridzon and Joel Bolomboy (4 assists), 3 to Nikita Kurbanov, 2 to Semen Antonov and one to Andrei Zubkov.
First basketball musical lasts 32 minutes
Musical Romeo and Juliet in basketball form was one of the main highlights of All-Star Game. If you missed it you have an opportunity to watch it right now.
1 Tyus Battle dunk has 50 points.
Enisey guard Tyus Battle made some show at dunk contest making all of his attempts from the first try. In 2 attempts he was assisted by his teammates, All-Stars Mikhail Kulagin and Dustin Hogue.
First final attempt scored 50 points (last year none of dunks received 50), and in 4 tries the American got 189 points combined!
57 points by Vitaly Fridzon!
57 points and 16 threes is an incredible result. No NBA star at All-Star Game hasn’t performed like this but Zenit veteran Vitaly Fridzon at All-Star Game 2021 has done it! 22 of 57 points were scored in the final quarter.
Besides amazing scoring Fridzon also showed astonishing efficiency, he hit 19 of 29 shots from the field, 16 of 26 from beyond the arc and 3 of 3 free throws. It took 26 minutes for him to make history.
127 field goals by Russia Stars
Russia Stars repeated All-Star Game record hitting 127 field goals. Last year World Stars did the same in the overtime game.
The most field goals were made by Vitaly Fridzon (29), Alexey Shved (18), Nikita Mikhailovskii (17), Nikita Kurbanov (14) and Joel Bolomby (14).
Team field goal percentage is 59% (75 from 127).
345 points combined the teams scored
Scroing record was broken not only by Vitaly Fridzon but by both teams players, who scored 345 points combined in 40 minutes. Last year including overtime there were 326 points scored.
Russia Stars set team All-Star scoring record – 183 points. World Stars stopped at 162 points for the second consecutive year, it is a record as well.
4055 spectators on stands
The main VTB United League victory is fans at the Arena on All-Star Game. Because of 50% capacity restrictions there were only 4055 tickets available. They were sold out a day before the All-Star Game.
Those who visited VTB Arena on February 14 may find their photos in Fans at All-Star Game album.
Over 430 thousand rubles are income of merchandise sales
On February 13 VTB United League announced not only sold out but running official online store. There were baseball caps and snapbacks, hoodies and sweaters presented.
In first two days the income is 430 thousand rubles of sales.
In future VTB League official online store is expected to be extended with other merchandise including jerseys, basketballs and other.
Over 500 thousand views of VTB League socials networks materials
Videos from All-Star Game were watched over half a million times in VTB United League socials in VK, Twitter, Instagram and Youtube.
The most popular video is slam dunk contest – 35 thousand views on Instagram and 20 thousand on Youtube. Videos of Tyus Battle winning dunks were posted on Syracuse University social network accounts, Enisey guard was playing for them since 2016 till 2019.
