The most notable basketball players of the ESBA Championship will step on the court of Gloria Sports Arena for the ESBA All-Star Game on Sunday evening. Following the opening ceremony of the championship, twenty-four chosen players will finish the first competitive day of action with a more fun-oriented event.
The ESBA All-Star Game, which is becoming a traditional feat of ESBA events, will divvy up participants into two teams — Team A and Team B — which will consist of nine male and three female players each.
Alzhan Zharmukhamedov and Victor Petrakov, two CSKA veterans, will headline the roster of Team A, with extensive top-level experience. Zharmukhamedov has won a gold medal in the 1972 Olympics, claiming bronze in 1976. He is also a three-time European champion and won silver in the 1978 World Championship.
Petrakov, meanwhile, has won the USSR championship with CSKA ten times in the seventies and eighties and won silver in the 1977 European championship.
Other notable names include Vera Filatova, Arunas Palsis, Vitaliy Detiuk and others.
Three-time Olympic bronze-medalist with the Lithuanian national team, Gintaras Einikis will perhaps be the most titled player for Team B. His countryman and longtime Zalgiris player Vitoldas Masalskis has
Sergey Ivanov become the World vice-champion with the Russian national team in 1994.
The game will be refereed by an experienced crew of Romualdas Brazauskas, Lahdo Sharro, Buluc Yalcin.
Roster of Team A: Banu Karadagli, Arunas Palsis, Rinard Urazmanov, Vera Filatova, Alla Krychenko, Uldis Bruns, Rolandas Penikas, Vitaliy Detiuk, Victor Petrakov, Petr Afanasyev, Alzhan Zharmukhamedov, Sergey Ivanov.
Coaches: Marko Macura (HC), Todor Kovachev, Ulli Ruez
Roster of Team B: Vitoldas Masalskis, Petko Stamatov, Egils Pans, Natalia Alekseeva, Valeria Sholohova, Pavlo Storozhenko, Ralf-Uwe Weule, Aleksandr Bobylev, Hakki Ziya Nazmi Pars, Natallia Uyanik, Gintaras Einikis, Aleksei Ugriumov.
Coaches: Umberg Piasevoli (HC), Zita Kuzminskiene
