League general director Ilona Korstin spoke on the main topics of season start.
On PARMA’s win over CSKA:
This season’s start is very interesting, we’ve seen some surprises. All the games were extraordinary in their own ways. For example, PARMA have outplayed CSKA for the first time ever. What a day for Perm. And we all remember Maxim Grigoryev’s game winning shot. There’s something special to the fact that Russian player decided the outcome of the game.
On Nizhny’s win and Anton Astapkovich’s career high:
Speaking of NN’s victory of Khimki, there’s another game with Russian hero. Anton Astapkovich scored 34 and proved himself a true leader. People say we lack Russian players for the national team, there’s no young generation, but here it is. Bazarevich has a list of great players fot the national team. Just go and use them. Why would Astapkovich be capable of scoring 34 in VTB League, but not in Russian national?
On Zenit’s start:
I don’t think Zenit’s victories can be called a surprise, that’s a different team now. They’ve changed a lot of players, signed new head coach. I think, Xavi Pascual was a lucky shot. It’s a team without world stars, but they have good players with good reputation. And the coach created a cohesive team, I like their ways in both offense and defense. They explore all the weak spots of the opponents. shut down the leaders. The main thing is that the players follow the guidelines of the head coach. There’s come chemistry to this team, they have coordination and colalboration between the coach and the team. We’ll see what happens next, but now Zenit looks really well-organized.
On Enisey vs Tsmoki-Minsk:
Just before the match, Enisey infromed the League on positive tests for COVID-19. First information was that was 3 players that had been isolated while the rest of the team tested negative. Since this was communicated less than 48 hours before the game, we couldn’t change the game date according to the new Regulations approved by all clubs.
We talked to the clubs, both Tsmoki-Minsk and Enisey expressed their readiness for the game, and Krasnoyarsk additionally confirmed they had sufficient number of players. According to FIBA rules, if a team has 5 players, the game can be played and this rule applied even before the pandemic. Enisey had more than 5 players.
League does not intend to change dates of such games, because clubs are in challenging times now. The question is how fast can club’s management and doctors isolate players and stop the spread of virus.
On changing the game dates:
VTB League can change the game date if the club sends request more than 48 hours before the game. In that case, the second team has not departed yet. We can change the date, but we have to take into account that the schedule is overloaded, as almost all the teams play in Europe. Secondly, the situation is not improving at all. I’m optimist and hope for the best, but I know that we have to try to hold as many games as possible and keep on living and working according to the plan, no matter what. VTB League activity will be in doubt if we keep on chaning the dates. The same can happen to Euroleague and other European competitions. We have obligations toward the sponsors, TV partners, we can’t be changing the dates all days long. Our goal is to play as many games as possible and have a normal full-format season.
