Two Golden Baskets awarded to CSKA

Today Russian Basketball Federation presented Golden Baskets – awards for the best players, coaches, management of 2005 legal year - at the basketball school Trinta residence. The ceremony began at 6 p.m. Moscow time, so it was a real task for Theodoras Papaloukas and other Army Men to be in time for its start because of the evening training. As a result CSKA players arrived 20 minutes late and Greek playmaker had to be in a hurry to receive the 2005 Best Foreigner prize.

11 nominations were announced in short order - all the award holders were known till 8 p.m. Besides Papaloukas, Sergey Makarov was named the Best Russian Basketball Video Clip maker. Coaches Eugeny Pashutin and Andrey Maltsev and players Nikita Kurbanov and Vasiliy Zavoruev were awarded with special prizes (clocks) as U20 European Championship men 2005 winners by the RBF Guardian Soviet Chairman, Minister of Defense Sergey Ivanov. CSKA CEO Sergey Kushchenko also took part in the presentation – he rewarded Maria Stepanova from VBM-SGAU, 2005 Best Russian Female Basketball Player (Andrey Kirilenko was the winner in the analogous Men nomination).

Despite the fact that CSKA received only two Golden Baskets, our club was given quite enough attention. The ceremony began with moment of silence and the video clip in memory of Alexander Gomelski. CSKA veteran Gennady Volnov who got the Past Services award didn’t set aside Army Club too and mentioned he hoped CSKA would rely more on Russian players. Besides RBF President Sergey Chernov thanked CSKA CEO Sergey Kushchenko and the whole club for their help in U20 European Championship men and Intercontinental Cup and even this evening setting-up. And RBF Executive Director Andrey Shirokov didn’t forget to express gratitude to CSKA Media Director Andrey Vatutin.