And again Vilnius-Kaunas

I visit Lithuania quite often and I can't yet speak of it without a sort of eloquent wonder and delight that our neighbors have such a tremulous love for basketball.

26 000 of spectators on two matches of VTB United League in the middle of the working week – isn’t it wonderful? By the way you couldn’t find a single poster neither in Vilnius, nor in Kaunas. And the teams were fighting only to get to playoffs.
Lets us not talk about our spoilt with shows. With all due respect to Moscow, it is not New York or London. I regularly visit cinemas, theaters, concerts and exhibitions. Tell me, what I do not see if such matches as Zalgiris - Khimki I am ready to watch almost every day?

With the audience like that it is simply impossible not to give a hundred per cent. Last year the upper tier was closed at the Vilnius arena, and CSKA beat their rivals casually enough. At this time, with the full tribunes, CSKA had to appear before the audience as almost invincible machine, and Lietuvos Rytas players even losing twenty points, fought in every episode and for every ball.

                 

As for Zalgiris – the Lithuanian champion gave a real fight to the current VTB United League champion and at the end of the match gained a victory. My colleagues and I did not remember a single match which was won by dunk in the final attack - as Sonny Weems did in Kaunas. This moment was so enchanting that the question «Why Kelati did not foul?» aroused only the next day.

                 

It is very difficult to imagine similar performances in our scenery. Give to people spacious modern arenas, normal human food, make a great show, instead of doing it «in accordance with the regulations», and people will come. People from Panevezys, Siauliai, and Klaipeda go to Zalgiris arena with pleasure and by the way that didn’t use to be the case. There are no sky-high prices for tickets and other pleasures in Kaunas but when fifteen thousand of visitors pay for it that’s would be good money in total.

Now, briefly about different things ...

Beautiful Greta, whom my colleague Vladimir Mozhaytsev interviewed as part of his endless series about cheerleaders, will finish her education at the University of Glasgow this year, and will become an architect.

                  

Lietuvos Rytas fans condemn the actions of Krasnodar talisman Loko critters and warns that in case of recurrence of such incidents, they will incite the wolf with glowing eyes. The Fight of talismans is something new.

                 

VTB United League press pool adds in basketball skills. For example, the journalist of Soviet Sport Dmitry Abarenov now steadily scores from the center of the court, however, with a deflated ball. Commentator of «Russia-2» television paid a hundred dollars for this show.

Suddenly it became clear that aircraft ATR 72-500 is able to accommodate at last two professional basketball teams. Looking at how Alexey Zhukanenko and Anton Pushkov (whose height is more than 190 cm) sit down in the armchairs, a columnist like yours is silent about discomfort.

Agreement about cooperation between the VTB United League and the Vilnius airport was signed in informal setting. Representatives from both sides met in one of the bars in Vilnius, preferred to take the soft option and simply exchanged with brand caps. The Details of the agreement are kept in secret but we believe that this is for long.

                 

By the way, the Lithuanian party started to fulfill their promises immediately. In the airport of Vilnius the group of Russian journalists under the leadership of deputy CEO of the League Alexander Fedotov passed the distance from check-in counter to departure hall triumphantly and without hitches.

Well and separate respect to Rimas Kurtinaitis. I think he could be easily brought directly to a boarding bridge of the airplane; however the coach of Khimki was with his team all time.
Does the coach of football team from your city acts the same way?

Roman Skvortsov,
commentator of «Russia-2» television.