The League CEO Ilona Korstin summed up the results of the first pre-season VTB United League SuperCup , which was won by CSKA.
– The SuperCup has also been added to the All-Star Game organized by the League. Can you compare these two events?
– Both events are important for us, but they are quite different, we should not compare them. The SuperCup is still a sports story in preparation for the season, where the top four League teams compete for the title in the Final Four format. Maybe these are not official games yet, but the teams are already taking these games seriously. There was a desperate struggle on the floor today. Unfortunately, Shabazz Napier was injured at the very beginning of the final game against CSKA. If he had played, the final game could have turned out differently, there would have been more heat.
If we talk about the All-Star Game, it’s more about a show where we take over the entire organization and want to hold not only a basketball game, but also a bright event in terms of music and performance.
So the All-Star Game and the SuperCup are different events, but we are glad that we have another landmark event. Thus, we promote the VTB League and popularize our favorite sport.
– How would you assess the first pre-season VTB League SuperCup in terms of organization?
– I think that everything was held at a high level. I would like to thank all our partners and sponsors, especially Moscow Sports, with whom we jointly held the Super Cup. I think we will do it again next year!
– What bright moments could you highlight at the SuperCup? Can you mention the best players?
– On the first day, I really liked Zenit point guard Shabazz Napier, who just got injured today. I believe that the SuperCup best player was Will Clyburn, who received the MVP award. We tried to single out one or two players in each team. At UNICS, this is a newcomer Mario Hezonja, at Loko – Eric McCollum, who played for Khimki last season. In CSKA, I will note Will Clyburn and Nikola Milutinov – important players in the rotation of Dimitris Itoudis.
I think the SuperCup games are just the beginning and during the season a lot of players will be revealed who will try to show their best side!
