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ABOUT
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11 Popova St., Perm, 614990, Russia
Phone: +7 3422 361 301
Fax: +7 3422 361 232
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   HISTORY

Basketball is one of the oldest sports in our region. The first games were played in the 20es of the last century. According to the local press of that time the Perm Yacht Club team defeated their opponents with the final result registered as 6:4! 1928 the first international game took place in Perm and the local team won their rivals from France.

The highest achievement of the Perm region basketball team in Soviet times was the 6th place won in 1975. Beginning from the 80es Technical University team showed good results playing in the First league of the Russian Championship. 1994/1995 the team qualified to the High League.

Ural Great Games Support Fund was founded in Perm on June 16, 1995. Its founders were the Perm basketball players who took part in the regional championship Sergey Kushchenko, Vladislav Isaev, Alexander Antonov and Vladimir Martynenko. They were supported by the Basketball Federation of the Perm Region and its President Leonid Likhachev.

In 1995/96 the Club was launched on the basis of the Technical University team. In its first season the team led by Vladimir Serebryakov ranked the 24th in the Russian Championship among the teams of the High League.

New head coach Vyacheslav Borodin joined the team in 1996/97. That season Ural Great took the second place in the Division B of the Russian High League and qualified to Russian Super League.

In 1997/98 Pavel Googe came to be the head coach of Ural Great. Alexander Chadov, Andrei Sheiko and Alexei Pegushin who once started in Perm but then played basketball outside Perm region came back to Ural Great. Coached by Googe the team became the Champion of the East Division of Super League and finished the 10th in Russian Championship.

Ural Great Junior - the Children's Sports Support Fund was launched in Perm in summer 1998. It was already in September that almost 6 thousand children started playing basketball there. The Fund was the first in Russia to organize an interregional seminar for coaches of junior basketball teams. The most famous basketball professionals of Russia Eugene Gomelsky, Ivan Edeshko and Valentina Bashkirova took part in the seminar. Ural Great Junior was the first to organize big children's basketball tournament where the Russian Passerelle team was among the participants. Since then such seminars and tournaments became international. Ural Great Junior team made its debut in the First League of the Russian Championship.

1998/99 - for the first time in the history of Perm basketball Ural Great qualified into play-offs of the Russian Championship, it competed to get the bronze award but finally finished the 4th in the country. Ural Great was the first team from Perm to get the right to represent Russia in the international tournament - European Korac Cup. On April 11, 1999 Perm hosted the most prestigious game of the season "All Stars of Russia - 99". It was successfully carried out on the biggest and most modern basketball court in Russia opened in autumn 1998. Molot Sports Hall accommodates 7 thousand spectators. Thus, by 1999 Ural Great managed to create an organizational infrastructure comprising all the components from training young basketball players to the team of professionals. It was recognized by the Russian experts as the most effective basketball structure in the country. According to the results of the 1998/99 season Russian Basketball Federation called the General Director of Ural Great Basketball Club Sergey Kushchenko "Man of the Year" in Russian basketball and elected him to the Executive Committee of the Russian Basketball Federation.

1999 was marked by further development of Ural Great. Perm Regional Administration offered its support to the club and Vice Governor Vladimir Morozov became the President of Ural Great Games Support Fund.

August 28, 1999 - Non-commercial partnership Ural Great Berezniki was founded. A new team was organized on its basis. In 2000/2001 this team became the bronze medallist of the High League of Russian Championship.

1999/2000 - Two people world famous in basketball came to coach Ural Great - Sergei Belov and Valdemaras Chomicius, both Olympic Champions. Igor Kurashov, center of the Russian National Team and silver medallist of the World Championship in Greece and Tomas Pacesas, playmaker of the Lithuanian National Team and bronze medallist of the Olympic Games in Atlanta joined the team roster. Center from CSKA Alexander Bashminov also signed the contract with Ural Great. American players - the best shooter of the Dutch Championship Donnell Tomas, NBA player Sean Higgins and NBA star of the 80es Roy Tarply strengthened the Perm team, too. Four players of Ural Great - Alexander Bashminov, Vyacheslav Shushakov, Alexei Pegushin and Andrei Sheiko participated in the World Students' Games in Palma de Mallorca, Spain. In May 2000 Ural Great won silver medals of the National Championship and received an invitation to take part in the regular NEBL Championship. Center Alexander Bashminov and guard Sergei Chikalkin were in the starting lineup of Russian National Team at the Olympic Games - 2000 in Sydney.

2000/2001 - Ural Great again strengthened the team with top level players. The club signed Mikhail Mikhailov from Real Madrid; Sergei Panov, Champion of Russia, from CSKA, Moscow; Rytis Vaisvila, Olympic Games in Atlanta bronze medallist with Lithuanian National Team and experienced NBA player Willie Burton. 2000/2001 appeared to be the most successful season in the Perm history of sports games clubs. In April 2001 Ural Great became the Champion of the Northern European Basketball League (Perm hosted Final Four of this tournament). In June the team became the Champion of Russia having won the semi-finals of the National Championship against CSKA, Moscow 2-0 and the finals against UNICS, Kazan 3-0. As the best team in the National Championship Ural Great was invited to participate in the most prestigious club tournament of the continent - ULEB Euroleague.

The decision to host the election conference of the Russian Basketball Federation in December 2000 was a great honour for Perm. According to the decision made by the delegates of the conference, General Director of the Club Sergey Kushchenko was elected to be the Vice President of the Russian Basketball Federation.

2001/2002 - Ural Great signed two players of the Russian NT: Vassili Karasev and Ruslan Avleev, American forward Anthony Bowie and Greek guard Panagiotis Liadellis. One of the best national basketball players Valeri Daineko strengthened the team's roster as well. In the NEBL competition the team became the second after Lietuvos Ritas from Vilnius, Lithuania. Participation in the Euroleague also proved to be successful as Ural Great qualified to Top 16 of this main European basketball competition. In the Russian championship playoffs Ural Great won Spartak Saint Petersburg 2-0 in the quarter finals, Avtodor Saratov 2-0 in the semis and Unics Kazan 3-1 in the finals thus repeating last season success and becoming Russian champion for the second time in a row. According to the basketball experts, 2001/02 season Ural Great ranked the 14th among the best basketball clubs of Europe.

Autumn 2001 - Ural Great players Alexander Bashminov, Mikhail Mikhailov, Vassili Karasev, Ruslan Avleev, Sergei Panov and forward of the Italian Benetton Sergei Chikalkin ex-player of the Urals team till 2001 made up the roster of the Russian national team. FIBA honoured the Club by decision to organize games of the Russian NT vs. national teams of Portugal and Slovenia in its home city.

Summer 2002 - Vassili Karasev, Sergei Panov, Ruslan Avleev and Alexander Bashminov were summoned to the NT to take part in the World Basketball Championship in Indianapolis, US.

The end of 2001/02 was marked by the changes. The founder and President of Ural Great Sergey Kushchenko accepted the offer to become the head of BC CSKA Moscow. Pavel Lyakh became the chief executive officer of the Club.

Sergei Belov and Valdemaras Chomicius signed three year contracts with Ural Great. The young and most prospective players of Russia and Europe were invited to the team. The club signed Andrei Kapinos one of the best shooters in the Russian Superleague, Nikolai Khrypa the key player of the Ukrainian NT, Stevan Nadjfeji from Yugoslavian Partizan, Ksystof Lavrinovic member of the Lithuanian NT and the others. The young and ambitious Ural Great is ready to meet the highest goals in both Russian championship and ULEB Cup.

Marketing and advertising policy being pursued by the Club's management for six years has paid off. Ural Great is the only Russian basketball team whose home games attract 7500 fans regularly. The team's both international and domestic success develop public interest to the Game on the whole. More than 10 000 people aged from 11 to 60 years old apply to participate in Street basket tournament being organized each summer and autumn.

In the 2002-2003 season Sergei Belov and Valdemaras Chomicius took a brand new direction in the development concept of the team. Ural Great signed young prospective players from Russia and Europe: Nikolai Khryapa (Ukrainian National Team), Stevan Nadjfeji (Partizan, Belgrade), Ksistof Lavrinovic (Lithuanian NT), Raimonds Vaikulis (Latvian NT) and some others. Being comprised mostly from young prospects the team was strengthened by Valentin Kubrakov, Christopher Anstey (Australia) and Martin Muursepp (Estonia) both having NBA experience. The American playmaker Eddie Shannon proved to be one of the most valuable additions to the team roster.

Another tournament the Club took part in the 2002-2003 season was the ULEB Cup, second main European competition. Having performed successfully in the qualifying stage of the tournament (most opponents were defeated in Perm with double-digit score differences), Ural Great was stopped in the two games series of the playoffs by Caprabo Lleida from Spain winning 84-79 at home but loosing 69-86 on the road.

Ural Great had more success in Russian Cup having qualified to the Final Four of the tournament. According to the draw Ural Great had to meet its most powerful opponent CSKA Moscow in the semifinals of the Cup where the Perm team lost an extremely intense game with the final result 71-83.

In the Russian championship quarter finals Ural Great won Dynamo Moscow 3-0. Unics Kazan was the next rival for the semifinals. This time to determine the winner it was necessary to play a series of five games where Ural Great managed to defeat the opponent which was superior in terms both of roster and budget. In the final series Ural Great lost 1-4 to CSKA Moscow thus becoming vice-champion of Russia.

At the end of the season Valdemaras Chomicius who since 1999 used to be assistant coach of Ural Great left Perm and signed as the head coach with Dynamo Moscow. Eddie Shannon, Chris Anstey, Alexei Pegushin, Stevan Nadjfeji, Valentin Kubrakov and Martin Muursepp also found new clubs. However in two months Chomicius came back to Perm to retain his place of assistant of Sergei Belov.

July 2003 - Ural Great Basketball Club underwent significant changes. The governor of Perm region Yuriy Trutnev made a decision to place the Club under the supervision of the Perm region government. Anatoliy Temkin, the first deputy of the governor, became the President of Ural Great Basketball Promotion Fund. OJSC Kamkabel which used to be financial partner of our club for many years preceding transmitted its authorities to the biggest companies of our region.

In the new season Ural Great signed several famous players. After a short break the favorites of local fans Ruslan Avleev and Valeri Daineko came back to Perm. Contracts were signed with Darren Fenn and Ivo Josipovic acknowledged to be the most effective players of Belgium. Pointguard spots were taken by Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf (NBA veteran) and Sandis Buskevics (Latvia). Zakhar Pashutin was loaned from CSKA Moscow. In addition to them a few young prospects joined the team: Alexei Kotishevskiy (Ural Great Junior), Anton Belov (Souyz, Zarechny), Alexander Dedushkin (Khimki, Moscow), Dmitry Poltavsky (Spartak, St.Petersburg) and Fedor Dmitriev (Russian Junior NT).

In the 2003-2004 season Perm hosted Final Four of Russian Cup. Having defeated Unics Kazan in the semifinals and CSKA Moscow in the finals of this tournament for the first time in its history Ural Great became winner of Russian Cup. Participation in the FIBA Europe League also proved to be successful. In the regular season Perm defeated Aris, winner of Greek Cup, and Hapoel Tel Aviv, runner-up in the Israeli championship. However having won national cup Ural Great did not manage to restore in one week only and lost in the Final Four of the FEL first to Unics in the semifinals and then to Hapoel Tel Aviv in the game for the third place. In the national championship our team won bronze medals of the regular season. In the playoffs Ural Great won 3-1quarterfinal series against Dynamo Moscow region, but lost 2-3 semifinals to Unics. In the final series for the third place our team lost 1-3 to Dynamo Moscow and took 4th place in the final qualification.

The 10th anniversary season turned out to be the season of dramatic changes. The club entered it having debts equal to its annual budget. And still the new administration of the Perm region confirmed its obligations to support the team. New people came to lead Ural Great: Arkadiy Kats, the first deputy of the governor, became Chief of Board of the club, Olga Antonova who used to be a member of the Economic Board by the governor was appointed a director of Ural Great. The new top managers managed to stabilize the financial situation in the club and start settling the debts.

The team's roster was changed significantly again. Its core consisted of the veteran Vyacheslav Shushakov, Ukrainian player Sergey Przheorskiy, American center Sam Hoskin, Croatian forward Jurica Golemac, Israeli Sharon Shason and the young guard rented from CSKA Moscow Egor Vyaltsev.

The season started off dramatically. Having lost 15 games out of 21 played Ural Great went down to thee bottom lines of the Russian championship and FIBA Europe League qualifications. The Board of directors made a decision to change the coaches. Sergey Belov became a member of the Board and his assistant Valdemaras Chomicius promoted to be the team's head coach. The team missed just one win to qualify to the playoffs of the FIBA Europe League. Victories over Unics Kazan and Euraz Ekaterinburg let Ural Great take the final 8th spot in the Russian championship qualification opening the road to the playoffs. In the quarter finals our team had to face CSKA Moscow that won the series 3-0.

In the late of the 2004-2005 season the Israeli Sharon Drucker was appointed to be the head coach of Ural Great. In 2004 he won ULEB Cup being head coach of Hapoel Jerusalem.



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