CSKA upset the president
In the eighth round of the Euroleague basketball, Russian champion CSKA upset its fans by losing to the Greek club PAOK on its home court with a score of 71:82. After this defeat, the army team lost second place to the Greeks. To remain in third position in the group, they now need to win the two remaining matches away from home: against the French Cholet and the Italian Benetton.

After CSKA won four victories in a row in Euroleague matches, Russian fans had the right to hope that Stanislav Eremin’s charges would continue their triumphant streak. Moreover, the bitterness from the first match of these rivals had not yet been forgotten: in Thessaloniki, the Greeks smashed the Russian champion to smithereens - the difference in the score was 20 points. Recalling that meeting, Eremin said: “Matches in Greece are always very nervous and very unpredictable. There is a lot of money floating around there, basketball players get big contracts there. And the money needs to be worked off. Those who said: they say, PAOK is not the same now and in general are wrong not a team. I categorically disagree with this. PAOK is a very decent team with a tough, competent defense. They lost to CSKA primarily because the basketball players gave up the fight: they struggled a little and broke.”
Thus, CSKA had an excellent opportunity to solve two problems at once: to return the favor to the Greeks, and to practically secure second place in the group before the two remaining away rounds. Alas, everything turned out exactly the opposite. The mood of the army team was also spoiled by former defender Sergei Bazarevich, who signed a two-year contract with PAOK this season. The Russian managed to obtain both a Greek passport and a license giving the right to compete in the Greek Championship and the Euroleague on the eve of the start of the championship. This is how CSKA President Alexander Gomelsky commented on his transfer to the Greek team: “I am very sorry that Seryoga does not play with us. He is a very cool basketball player.” Bazarevich himself is not happy with his game: “Personally, I’m going through a bad patch right now - I’m not happy with my game yet, not everything is working out on the court.” However, the head coach of the Greek club, Peter Skansi, had a completely different opinion about Bazarevich, who released the ex-army man in the starting five. And it was the Russian legionnaire, although in the end he scored only seven points, who became the main character in PAOK. He started his team's attacks, competently directed his partners, and distributed accurate passes. Together with him, another defender stood out for the guests - Claudio Caldebella, who won goals against the army attackers over and over again. In addition, his targeted shots (the Italian scored 14 points) and rapid passes under the CSKA defense constantly baffled the army team’s defense. Forward Bill Edwards and center Victor Alexander also played well, scoring 22 points.
The culmination of the meeting was the end of the first twenty minutes, when the Greeks broke away from CSKA by almost 20 points. In the second half of the match, the Russians reduced the difference to ten points, but they were not enough to achieve more. Defender Gundars Vetra played below their capabilities, both centers Mate Skelin and Gintaras Einikis, long-range shooter Igor Kudelin did not shoot, and forward Sergei Panov scored only two points. Except that Vasily Karasev looked decent.
After the final whistle, Sergei Bazarevich, answering a question from a Kommersant correspondent, said: “My bad streak may not be over, but this is a very important victory for the team.” We also managed to find out the opinion of RFB President Valery Kuzin, who witnessed the defeat of the best Russian club: “The result is fair. I didn’t see our favorite team play, although I really hoped that CSKA would win, and even flew to Moscow especially for this.”

DMITRY Kommersant-VOSKRESENSKY

Newspaper "Kommersant" No. 214 dated November 19, 1999, p. 15

Authors:

Dmitry Voskresensky