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How do they switch from hockey to basketball
How Does a Basketball Court Change Into an Ice Hockey Rink?
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How does a basketball court change into an ice hockey rink?
How long does the ice in a hockey rink last?
How long does it take to convert a basketball court to an ice hockey rink?
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Today’s Wonder of the Day was inspired by lucas.lucas Wonders, “how do they change a basketball stadium to a ice rank” Thanks for WONDERing with us, lucas!
Have you ever been to Los Angeles? If you have and you're a sports fan, there's one place you may have had the chance to visit: the Staples Center. In addition to hosting concerts and all sorts of special events, the Staples Center is also home to three professional sports franchises: the Los Angeles Lakers basketball team, the Los Angeles Clippers basketball team, and the Los Angeles Kings ice hockey team.
Back in May 2012, the Staples Center was an exciting place to be. All three teams made the playoffs, requiring the arena to host six playoff games in just four days. The Staples Center had to change from a Kings ice hockey rink to a Lakers basketball court to a Clippers basketball court and back over the course of less than a week.
Thanks to the modern technology that exists in today's sports arenas, the crews that man the Staples Center were able to transition between basketball courts and ice hockey rinks quickly. In fact, these transitions occur all over the country, since many cities have arenas that host both professional basketball and ice hockey teams.
If you think it sounds like a lot of work to convert an ice hockey rink to a basketball court and back again, you're right. Depending upon the technology used and the workforce available, the transition can take dozens of workers as few as 90 minutes or just a few workers an entire day to complete.
If a crew had to create a new ice hockey rink for each game, the process would be much more complicated. What many people don't realize, however, is that once an ice hockey rink is created at the start of the season, it stays in place until the season and playoffs are over.
The layer of ice on an ice hockey rink is only about an inch thick. However, it is created out of many tiny layers of ice to make sure the ice is strong and durable. It remains frozen throughout the season thanks to a calcium-chloride solution (called brinewater) that is cooled and circulated in the layer of concrete that forms the base of the ice layer.
When it's time to convert an ice hockey rink to a basketball court, the walls and glass panels around the rink are removed. Then large pieces of insulated plywood are laid out over the top of the ice. Finally the basketball court is pieced together like a puzzle on top of the plywood. The special plywood keeps the ice cool and the court warm. After the game, the process is reversed to get the arena ready for the next ice hockey game.
So when the basketball players are out there slam dunking the basketball through the hoop, the court they're running on still has the ice hockey rink beneath it. Don't worry about the basketball court sliding on the ice, though. It's heavy enough to stay in place on its own. For example, the basketball court the Denver Nuggets team plays on consists of 285 pieces that weigh 186 pounds each, which adds up to a court that weighs 26.5 tons!
The ice in an ice hockey rink is only removed when the regular season and playoffs are finished. When it's time to get rid of the ice, the brinewater is warmed and circulated under the ice to begin the melting process. Once the ice has melted sufficiently, it is then broken up and carted off by front end loaders.
Wonder What's Next?
Tomorrow’s Wonder of the Day might lead to some interesting conversations in your garden!
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Are you ready to take to the court? Be sure to check out the following activities with a friend or family member:
Which professional basketball teams share arenas with professional hockey teams? Do your own Internet research to find out the answer! Before you get started, though, take a guess at how many teams share facilities. Start making your list by writing down all of the professional basketball and hockey teams you can think of. Then complete your research online. Were there more or fewer teams that share facilities than you thought there'd be?
Why do you think professional teams share facilities? Why don't they all just build their own arenas? Think about the economics of switching from court to rink and back. Compare those costs to the expense of building and maintaining an arena. You'll probably need to do a bit of independent research to determine some approximate costs for these things. Based upon your research, what do you conclude about the wisdom of switching from court to rink and back versus building individual arenas?
With technology constantly evolving, the means of switching between basketball courts and ice hockey rinks might change over time. Can you envision any inventions that might make the process easier in the future? Could new arenas be designed in such a way that switching between uses could be faster and easier? Let your imagination roam and write down or draw pictures of ideas you think could revolutionize these processes in the future. Share your ideas with a friend or family member. What do they think about your ideas?
Amiya for contributing questions about today’s Wonder topic!
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How Do Arenas Transition From Hockey To Basketball?
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Image Credit: David Jones (CC BY 2.0)
There are 11 arenas in professional sports that are home to both NBA and NHL teams. If you've ever wondered how these arenas can transform from a basketball venue to a hockey venue and vice versa within just a few hours, you're not alone. If you think that this transformation and changeover process is easy, well, you've got a lot to learn.
The timeline for transitioning from an NHL game to an NBA game typically follows this order. The entire process can typically be completed in less than two and a half hours depending on the size of the working operations crew.
1. Remove the protective netting in each goal zone above the glass. Then, remove the protective glass. There are generally more than 150 pieces of glass that are installed around the ice rink. Each piece of glass is labeled and has been bolted into place. The pieces of glass are stacked on carts and hauled off and placed into storage.
2. The changeover of the seating begins. If you've ever seen how the bleachers can fold up in a high school gymnasium, the same applies here. Bleachers are folded up according to the arena's seating plan and pushed back to allow for additional space for the crew to install the basketball court. The ice is then covered with more than 500 pieces of insulated plywood which have the capability of keeping the ice cold.
3. The parquet pieces that comprise the basketball court are then rolled out on carts and laid down over the plywood. Most basketball court pieces measure 4 x 8 feet and there are generally more than 200 pieces that make up the entire court. A crew of four are usually needed to lift each piece which are locked into place using a groove and latch system. A crew member will then use a sledgehammer to tighten each piece into place.
4. The basketball goals are brought out on a forklift and laid down at each end of the court. Basketball goals are very mobile and can generally be completely assembled in less than an hour.
5. Setup the courtside seats. More courtside seating is available for professional basketball games since a basketball court is much smaller than an ice rink. When transitioning from basketball games to hockey games, these seats will be removed completely.
6. Small miscellaneous tasks are then performed. These could include making room for all of the wiring needed for the media, setting up media tables, changing out the padding on the basketball goals if different sponsors are supposed to appear on the padding for that particular game, etc.
The operations crew typically has the tear down and installation process for both playing surfaces perfected to a "T" within a month after the seasons begin in October. If you're a hockey fan, one thing you may not realize is that the ice stays in place from the beginning of the season until the conclusion in the spring. A calcium-chloride solution called "brinewater" is what helps keep the ice cold throughout the season. When the season ends, the brinewater is then warmed and used to help melt the ice. After the ice has melted sufficiently, the ice is then cracked and broken up by the operations crew and then thrown away.
The 11 arenas that are home to both an NHL and NBA team are as follows.
The TD Garden - Home of the Boston Bruins and Boston Celtics.
The United Center - Home of the Chicago Blackhawks and Chicago Bulls.
The Pepsi Center - Home of the Colorado Avalanche and Denver Nuggets.
American Airlines Center - Home of the Dallas Stars and Dallas Mavericks.
Little Caesar's Arena - Home of the Detroit Red Wings and Detroit Pistons.
The Staples Center - Home of the Los Angeles Kings, Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Clippers.
The Barclays Center - Home of the New York Islanders and Brooklyn Nets.
Madison Square Garden - Home of the New York Rangers and New York Knicks.
The Wells Fargo Center - Home of the Philadelphia Flyers and Philadelphia 76ers.
The Air Canada Centre - Home of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Toronto Raptors.
The Verizon Center - Home of the Washington Capitals and Washington Wizards.
Reference:
ChicagoTribune.com
Wonderopolis.org
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90,000 NBA Draft. How it works? - Blogg on the floor - Blogs
Everything you wanted to know about the draft but were afraid to ask.
The text of the educational program was first published before the 2016 draft
The NBA draft will take place today - an event that attracts many even more than the final series, especially fans of teams that did not make the playoffs or were eliminated early stages.
What is a draft?
Draft - translated from English as "call" - is held every year at the end of the season in the NBA. At the ceremony, which is traditionally held in New York (until 2010 the draft was held in the legendary Madison Square Garden, since 2011 - at the Nets' home arena, first in New Jersey, now in Brooklyn), NBA clubs take turns declaring their rights for young basketball players.
If you are familiar with the European sports system, where children are made into athletes in academies and sections, you may not immediately understand the idea of a draft. But in America there is a clear vertical of sports, which is integrated into the education system: schools - universities - professional sports. Different sports have their own nuances, but in basketball the scheme is the simplest. After school, the best players are offered sports scholarships at universities, the competitions of which are supervised by the NCAA association, and from there students are drafted by NBA teams.
From 2022, the NBA plans to once again allow a player to be drafted straight from school, bypassing college, as Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett, LeBron James and others did in 1995-2005.
How long has the draft been in existence?
The first NBA draft passed after the first season of the Association - in 1947. The NBA adopted the amateur draft system from the National Football League, where it had existed since 1936, with NFL teams allocating rights to players who were not yet professionals. If you dig deeper, the origin of the draft lies in baseball - from 19For 21 years, Major League Baseball teams have been drafting players from the minor leagues.
Why is it needed?
The main idea of the draft is to give all clubs a chance to get a strong basketball player into the roster. The whole philosophy of the NBA is based on the fact that initially the opportunities of all teams are equal. The Draft makes impossible the situation we're used to in European sports, where rich clubs buy the best stars and their academies and youth teams have a long line of promising athletes. In the NBA, any club can get a chance to win the rights to a future star by drafting her.
How are draft spots determined?
Based on how the club performed last season. The order of the draft is the reverse of the regular season table: the lower the place in the table, the higher the number in the draft (also called the "draft pick" or simply "pick"), and performance in the playoffs does not matter. However, the first four draft picks are played in the "draft lottery".
All clubs that didn't make the playoffs have a chance of picking one of the first four picks in the draft. To determine who gets to choose first, second and third, a lottery ceremony takes place in May. During this ceremony, four balls out of fourteen are drawn by lot. Combinatorics says that the number of combinations of four balls out of fourteen is 1001. For an even number, one reserve combination (“11-12-13-14”) is removed, and the remaining 1000 are distributed among teams. The bottom three clubs in the league have 14% to win the lottery, the fourth from the bottom has 12.5%, and so on; the best club that did not qualify for the play-offs has only a 0.5% chance of winning the toss. The number of wins does not affect the chances, only the place in the table. The procedure is carried out four times, determining the first, second, third and fourth numbers. If a reserve combination falls out or one that has already been (you cannot win the lottery twice in one year), then the balls are taken out of the lottery drum again.
What is the lottery for?
The system when the worst teams are chosen first is inherently flawed - some club can deliberately lose as many matches as possible in order to fall to the very bottom of the table and choose first. This strategy is called "tanking" in jargon. Prior to 1965, the NBA had a "territorial draft pick" rule, where clubs could select players from nearby colleges out of turn. But as the league expanded, that rule was dropped, and first pick was determined by a coin toss—the two bottom-place teams in their conferences had a 50% chance of being number one. So, a coin at 19'79 determined that Magic Johnson went to the Lakers, not Chicago.
In 1985, the league came to the decision that a blind draw would determine the order in which not only the last and penultimate teams in the league, but generally all teams that did not make the playoffs, would be selected. In 1987, the system was adjusted - non-playoff clubs still had equal chances for the first, second and third draft picks, but after the first three places were drawn, the rest were chosen in the standard reverse order.
In 1990, they approved the system that is still in force today, in which the probability of winning the lottery was the higher, the worse the place in the regular season table was. Probability percentages have fluctuated from year to year, the most recent system with the most even odds was introduced only this year and is designed to reduce the number of teams deliberately losing for the sake of a high number in the next draft (previously, the worst team received 25% chances for the first pick).
The reform is believed to have worked - only three teams did not win 20 games last season, of which only the worst - the New York Knicks - won the lottery, and still fell from first place to third.
How many people will be selected today?
The NBA Draft consists of two rounds (once their number reached ten or more - teams were chosen until they got bored, in 1988 the number of rounds was reduced to three, and the next year to two). Since there are 30 teams in the NBA, 60 people will be selected in the draft now. Each club is assigned a place in the first and second rounds.
Players from the first round of the draft receive guaranteed contracts for two years in certain amounts (clubs also have the opportunity to extend the contract for the third and fourth seasons), players from the second round sign with the club that selected them for any contracts, almost like free agents.
What happens to those who are not drafted?
They become free agents and are free to sign with any NBA team if they are interested. Every year, about 20 undrafted rookies get a chance to play in the NBA.
So you can get into the NBA without being drafted?
You can get into the NBA without being drafted. But all the players were drafted - they were simply either selected and assigned to some NBA team, or not. How exactly basketball players get into the draft is described below.
Will drafted players play in the NBA next year?
Not at all necessary. The club is obliged to sign the player selected in the draft if the basketball player himself requires it, but the team can agree with the player that he will spend a year in another league, and sign in the NBA later. The rights to the players do not expire until the player signs a contract, so, for example, Atlanta still has the rights to 51-year-old Augusto Binelli, who was selected 30 years ago, but never came to the NBA, and Sacramento there are rights to the legendary Dejan Bodiroga, who ended his career back in 2007 and is considered the best player of our time, who never tried his hand at the NBA.
In most cases, the so-called “stash” basketball players (to stash) play in Europe (Latin America, China, Australia) until they are needed in the NBA: San Antonio has rights to a dozen Europeans, from young Milutinov and Lalanne to veterans Lorbeck and Printezis who will no longer come to North America. But in recent years, NBA clubs have occasionally begun to use their American Farm League (G-League) for these purposes.
But the player can no longer return to college after the draft - the rules of the student NCAA do not allow basketball players entering the draft to change their mind after a certain date (this year the date is before 29May). So a player who enters the draft is sure to become a professional after him - in the NBA or another league. He can continue his education in college (if he finds time for this in the busy schedule of the NBA), but will lose his athletic scholarship, will be forced to pay his own tuition and will no longer be able to play for university sports teams.
What if a player refuses to play for the club that chose him?
A basketball player has no leverage to choose a club - he either plays for the team that has the rights to him, or does not play in the NBA at all. But there have been no such scandals for a long time - not once in the 21st century. If a player for some reason does not want to play for the club that has chosen him, it is better for him to amicably agree with the team and his agent that he will then be exchanged to another club. And no one wants to risk their reputation and spoil relations with the NBA even before their debut. There is too much money at stake now to give it up so easily.
Why does Atlanta have six draft picks this year and the Lakers have none?
In the NBA, clubs do not buy basketball players from other teams, but exchange them for other players. Clubs in the NBA - like in other American leagues - have the opportunity to exchange future draft picks for existing players. So, last summer, San Antonio gave Kawhi Lenard to Toronto, and in return received not only two players, but also the right to choose in the 2019 draft under the Raptors pick in the first round. Last season, Toronto finished second in the regular season – and in 2019, San Antonio will choose not only under “their” 19-th peak, but also under the "Canadian" 29th. And the Lakers, as a result of various exchanges, gave up their picks in the 2019 draft in both the first (not yet official, but already negotiated trade of Anthony Davis) and in the second round, and therefore remained without draft picks at all tomorrow.
Every year about 10 first round picks and 15 second round picks change hands as a result of past exchanges. In addition, on the day of the draft itself, many picks also go in exchanges: someone wants to "rise" in the draft and exchange several lower picks for one higher one, someone wants to get a young player and exchange one of their basketball players for the right to choose another club in the draft.
How is the draft ceremony?
Representatives of all teams gather in one place and begin to choose players in turn. The choice of a player in the first round is given 5 minutes, after which the club's managers must make a decision and report it to NBA commissioner Adam Silver. After that, Adam enters the stage, announces his choice, invites the player to shake hands (if the player is present in the hall), and the 5-minute countdown begins for the other team.
In the second round, the tired commission agent is replaced by his deputy, only 2 minutes are given to choose, and the players are no longer called on the stage.
What is a green room?
In front of the stage where the NBA commissioner will announce the election today, there is an area called the Green Room where the NBA personally invites players to be selected with the highest numbers. Usually the number of invitations varies from 15 to 20. Each player is allocated a table "in the stalls", where he sits with his family.
How cool is it to pick number one?
Of course, the higher your draft number, the more likely you are to get the best player. At different times, such great basketball players as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Shaquille O'Neal and LeBron James (pictured) were chosen under the first number.
However, number one is no guarantee of success: of the last 30 first picks in the draft, only five have become champions so far, and only two (Kyrie Irving and Tim Duncan) are on the team that drafted him (LeBrona also once chose Cleveland, but he went to Miami, and returned as a free agent).
In addition, quite often there are cases when a basketball player is chosen with a high number who does not live up to expectations. Drafting and evaluating player prospects is not an exact science, and there are always misses because sports managers have not yet learned to look into the future.
Can I choose a star with low numbers?
Of course. Two-time NBA Most Valuable Player Stephen Curry was selected only seventh in 2009. Dirk Nowitzki - ninth in 1998. Kobe Bryant, one of the most popular athletes in history, once fell to number 13, as did the legendary Karl Malone. Defending champion and Finals MVP Kawhi Lenard was selected 15th, after lottery picks, along with Giannis Antetokounmpo. Nikola Jokic and Draymond Green were selected only in the second round of the draft, where a basketball player appears every year who is capable of becoming a team leader in the future.
Who should be the star of the 2019 draft?
Forward Zion Williamson is recognized as the 2019 Player of the Year. Highly regarded also include two defensemen, RJ Barrett and Ja Morant. Some of them will be able to confirm expectations, someone will disappoint. And someone who wasn't even invited to the Green Room could shoot and make it to the All-Star Game in a few years.
How do players get drafted?
You can get drafted "automatically", or you can apply . Let's consider both options in more detail.
What is automatic draft entry?
There are two categories of players automatically drafted:
Those students who played four seasons in the NCAA - such were Tim Duncan (pictured) in 1997, Draymond Green in 2012, this year - the giant Taco Fall.
Previously undrafted overseas players who turn 22 in the year of the draft - that is, now they are basketball players from Europe, Asia, Latin America, Australia, Africa, etc. 1997 year of birth.
Those who studied at an American school or university and then transferred to a professional contract abroad also automatically get into the draft. After a year of playing professionally, such players enter the draft - rare cases, but not exceptional (Brandon Jennings in 2009, Emmanuel Mudiay a few years ago).
How do I apply for a draft?
If a player does not intend to study all four years or does not want to wait until he is 22, he can apply for a draft called “early entry” . To do this, he writes an official letter to the league office with the nomination of his candidacy. The vast majority of players are just such early entry players, for example, this year there are 84 of them, and about fifty will be among the coveted 60 numbers.
To apply, a player must be at least 19 years of age in the year of the draft and must either be playing overseas or be a student. NCAA students can apply after their first year. In the last nine drafts, the first pick has been exclusively freshmen.
Schoolchildren have been banned from drafting since 2006, but in 2016, 19-year-old Ton Maker was able to circumvent this rule by proving that he graduated from school a year ago, and for 2015/16 remained in it of his own free will for additional training. Since then, a few other people, such as Mitchell Robinson of the Knicks, have moved to the NBA from their postgraduate years of high school, bypassing college.
A player cannot enter the NBA without being drafted. Each person either goes there automatically after graduating from college or by age 22, or wants to do it earlier and applies. All NBA players - and generally all people over the age of 22 - were in the draft, just someone was selected, and someone was not.
How many times can a player apply for a draft?
You can only be drafted once. But a player can submit an application, withdraw it before the deadline (May 29 this year for NCAA students, June 10 for international basketball players), then reapply in another year - and if desired, withdraw again and wait for automatic exit. This year there were 90 people who applied went to screenings, talked to club representatives, and then withdrew the application, feeling that next year their chances of being selected high would be better. Among them is the Russian Nikita Mikhailovsky from Avtodor.
Can I apply for a draft?
This year, of course, not anymore, the application deadline has long passed. But next - if you were born in 1998, 1999 or 2000, or graduated from high school in the US in 2019 - you can apply for the NBA draft. You don't really need to know how to play basketball. And at 22, we were all/will automatically be in the draft, even without any applications.
Are there Russians in this draft?
Only those that come out automatically because they were born in 1997. None of them stand a chance of being selected.
Were the Russians chosen in the draft?
Back in 1975, Alexander Belov was selected in the tenth round of the draft. Of course, he did not leave the USSR for the NBA. In 1986, other legendary Soviet basketball players appeared in the draft - Sabonis, Volkov, Tikhonenko. But foreigners went to the NBA only at 1988, and after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the clubs began to draft our compatriots with the specific goal of inviting them to the NBA.
Here's who was selected in the draft:
1994 - No. 36, Andrey Fetisov, Boston (did not play in the NBA).
1999 - No. 24, Andrei Kirilenko, Utah (13 years in the NBA).
2004 - No. 21, Pavel Podkolzin, Dallas (2 years in the NBA), No. 22, Viktor Khryapa, Portland (4 years in the NBA), No. 23, Sergey Monya (1 year in the NBA), Portland , No. 57, Sergey Karaulov, San Antonio (did not play in the NBA).
2005 - No. 12, Yaroslav Korolev, Clippers (2 years in the NBA).
2008 - No. 56, Sasha Kaun, Cleveland (1 year in the NBA).
2013 - No. 19, Sergey Karasev, Cleveland (3 years in the NBA).
The rest, including Shved, Bazarevich and NBA champion Timofey Mozgov, were not drafted and signed as free agents. Bolomboy, McCarthy and Hansen became Russians years after the NBA draft.
What time is the draft tomorrow and where can I watch it?
The draft ceremony will begin at 2:30 am from Thursday to Friday Moscow time, and you can watch, by subscribing to NBA League Pass .
What if I still have questions about the NBA draft?
Is Samson Ruzhentsev the next Russian in the NBA? Did not wait for CSKA, left for the USA and entered the top 50 schoolchildren - Interception - Blogs
Editor's Note: You are reading a user blog called "Interception", which talks about young Russian basketball players. Do not forget that the author can be thanked with a plus.
Samson Ruzhentsev will go to the NBA draft this year. He is only 20 years old, but this is not an early draft entry - he already played in the NCAA and after that signed a professional contract, which means he should go to the next draft automatically. Read more about the situation with the draft and the fate of Ruzhentsev in the new video.
Sam's story is about sailing, a strong Fizmatov school, running away from home because you can't hit the ball there at night, in many ways an accidental departure to America, and there, in America, getting into the top 50 basketball schoolchildren in the country. He fell in love with himself so much by playing for the school that, in order to entice him, Florida representatives flew to Chattanooga on a private plane and promised to put the striker in the squad at all costs. There are a lot of “buts” and sharp turns in this story, so if you are already interested, then watch the big video about Ruzhentsev on YouTube.
If you chose the YouTube option, please don't forget to like the video and leave a comment. It helps in promotion.
If you prefer to read, then below is the full text with comments by the main characters.
Samson Ruzhentsev started playing basketball at the age of 10. This story could be painfully logical - his dad, Pavel Ruzhentsev, took second place in the Russian basketball championship in 1974. He continued to play at an amateur level, but Samson is a late child, and by the time he was born, dad had long forgotten that he had ever played.
He became interested in skiing and tennis. And Samson also prepared for tennis, the boy began to practice from the age of 6. But then the family moved to the village of Terpigorievo, this is in the Moscow region, and there Ruzhentsev Jr. became interested in sailing. There was a reservoir and a yacht club nearby. All the villagers went there, and Samson went. He liked it - firstly, he was good at it, and secondly, you can imagine the atmosphere: the reservoir, the sun, you are always tanned and drive a large ship. Who wouldn't like it!
But things changed very quickly.
Pavel Ruzhentsev: “Then he went to school, and Vilochkin Ivan Andreevich came to school from the 56th school. And Samson began to grow. My middle son is not very tall, the youngest - the leg is only the same as Samson's, the 50th size. And Samson began to grow right before our eyes, you look at the leg - it grows. And the coach invited him to basketball. He called me, I told him: “No, we are sewn up here, we have sailing. ” And there, even in winter, competitions are held, only on the snow. And he says: "Well, let him try, come on." And Samson didn't even know that I played basketball, that at 19In 1974 we were second in the Russian championship. Voronezh won, in Stavropol then there was a final. And I remembered this case, I thought, well, let him try. He came and his eyes lit up. And we had our own house, and between the second and third floors I wanted to make myself a billiard room. But he immediately hung up the ring - the one who was involved in basketball, he does not forget this. And immediately it somehow came to mind.
Samson Ruzhentsev: “I started playing basketball when I was 10 or 11 years old. It turned out rather strange: there was just a physical education lesson at school, then I studied at a school on Schelkovskaya. It's just that the coach of the second squad of the 56th, Ivan Andreevich, came to the lesson. Apparently he needed people. He said that here, whoever you want, sign up everyone who wants to try. I decided to sign up, went a couple of times, I really liked it. Since then, I have been constantly doing this, I immediately fell in love with sports. I started in the second squad of the 56th, then moved to the first and so on, my career has already begun.
Now Samson talks about it so easily - well, he moved from the second team to the first, and so his career went. In fact, everything was not so simple. After all, Samson studied at a rather strong Fizmatov school and could go to training only twice a week. And in the first composition, you had to go five times a week! They will see Samson in the second squad, they will pull him up in the first, but he cannot walk. He will be lowered again in the second. Then they see him again, pull him up again, and he misses again...
In order to somehow compensate for the lack of classes, Pavel Ruzhentsev agreed with the director of the school in the neighboring village that after 7 o'clock Samson would be allowed into the hall to be thrown. He takes his son to school past this village - he calls in, Samson trains there, and they go further. And at home, too, the hall was on the second floor, and there Ruzhentsev honed dribbling to the music. And so they lived.
Pavel Ruzhentsev: “Besides that, at 2 am we could hear someone knocking - boom, boom, boom. I had wood floors. Well, for sure, I say: “Samson, are you stunned, the time is 2 a.m., do you think we won’t hear you?” And slowly, slowly, until he began to run away from home and say: “I don’t need your physics and mathematics, I don’t want anything at all, then I’ll leave home.” In winter, in just shorts and felt boots, damn it, he ran away ... We look at the navigator where our guy is. He crosses the reservoir! Freeze! Back then, navigators didn’t work well… And he sits in the boiler room warming himself. Well, then our mother, our main person, said - well, okay ... And then we took him from there to a simple school, and he began to play basketball.
Samson played for the 56th school. He played well, but did not feel that he was getting enough trust there. One day it turned into a small incident. Sam's team met with "Trinta", and Ruzhentsev prepared a lot for this match, trained individually, tuned in. And they just didn't release him the whole game. Three minutes before the final whistle, the coach told him to "go play", to which Samson said: "I won't go."
As a result, the coach kicked him out, and dad transferred Samson to another school - so the 14-year-old boy ended up in Timiryazevskaya. With the new team, Samson reached the final of the Russian championship, but did not play in the final due to injury. However, in the semi-finals he scored more than 30 points, which attracted the attention of scouts from CSKA.
And this is a dream. Dad told Samson a lot about Sergei Belov, and he tried to copy a lot from the legend of Russian basketball. At the same time, he added something of his own, well, as his own - at that time the NBA could already be watched on TV, so Sam also tried to copy the movements from the NBA stars.
Samson Ruzhentsev: “Yes, I think about the middle of the season I started training with CSKA DUBL, and I didn't show up for training at Timiryazevskaya. I planned to sign CSKA with DUBL, but in the end my plans changed, and after that I left for America. But in general, yes, I had to play in CSKA DUBL.
— Have you ever regretted not trying your hand at CSKA?
— No, of course not. I think it was the right decision to leave. Everything lined up as it should, I think there’s nothing to regret.”
But now it seems that there is nothing much to regret. Then it was almost a disaster! After all, Ruzhentsev did not just sign a contract with the "soldiers" - he was simply not offered it for a long time. It was May, the club had already signed agreements with Gafurov, Tishin, Pokhodyaev… But not with Samson. Time was running out, but even the coach could not be contacted: Alexei Zhukov, who headed CSKA-JBL, went to work in Nizhny Novgorod in the summer and could not help in any way. And here Samson's mother joined in, who said: “Well, if you can leave somewhere, then ... why, in fact, not leave?”
There was only one “but”: Samson did not want to go to Europe…
Samson Ruzhentsev: “It seemed to me that Europe and Russia are about the same thing. We still play European basketball. It seemed to me that there was not much difference, I could also play in the CSKA DUBL, it would be the same level as if I had left for Italy or Spain. I always had a goal to go to America, and my parents too, I learned English from a very young age.
The Ruzhentsevs turned to almost the only agency that sent young Russian basketball players abroad - Pro Futuro Sports. But another problem arose - where to get the video for cutting? After all, you can’t just leave for the USA, first you need to interest some school so that it sends an invitation ... It would seem, what questions? The guy played in CSKA! But at that time, technology was not developed in the same way as it is now, and it was very difficult to get a cut of the moments. I had to include moments from ... the amateur championship of the city of Korolev.
Samson Ruzhentsev: “It just so happened that when we were making the video, I didn't have any records from the Russian Championship. The video itself was only about two minutes, there was a bit of how I played for Timiryazevskaya, I remember at some tournament, and most of it was from the championship of the city of Korolev, I played there for the Baskerville team. This is a team that at first was not even a team, just men came to play, even gathered on the playgrounds. When I first started playing basketball. It was my dad who came to play, and he took me with him. And then they formed a team and began to participate in the Queen's championship. And they also included me in the application, sometimes I appeared there, played. And there, in order to play in the semi-finals and finals, you had to score a certain number of games - five, or something - in the regular season, I played these five games, and then played for them in the semi-finals and finals.
Pro Futuro Sports took these moments from the amateur championship and sent them to American schools. And even managed to interest someone!
Pavel Ruzhentsev: “And immediately we received requests from three schools. One is some kind of English, they are either Catholics or Protestants, but very religious. A small number of students. The second one was constantly in the top ten, we paid attention to it. Huntington Prep. We contacted the coach, he said: “Yes, I looked, everything is fine, let's contact you in three days, I will tell you how to proceed, we will work.” Three days later, he did not get in touch, we wrote to him in every possible way, but he did not answer. I also say: “Sash (head of the Pro Futuro Sports agency Alexander Skryagin - approx. “Interception”), but how is it? Well, the Americans… You know them better. I thought that you can say “yes”, you can say “no”, but not answering at all is not about them.” He said it was all about them.
And there was a school in the small town of Chattanooga, a rural school, 120 people, the gym is covered with linoleum, but the wonderful coach Zak, just fantastic. She is also religious, Samson was obliged to go to church there on weekends. He walked and listened. Well, the church there was also peculiar - there were no icons there, it was cool, there was air conditioning, soft chairs. They speak English, but sensible things, on weekends, when there are no matches, it was not scary to go there for an hour. This school is interested in us. And we sent it. Collected and shipped.
The most interesting thing is that then, two years later, the coach, who did not get in touch, then met with this school, Samson scored 26 points, they won 20 points. He approached the coach and said: “Don't you remember me? We talked to you." He said that he did not remember, and then Samson said that he was Russian. The coach immediately: “Ah, yes, I made a mistake.” And Samson went happy. It happened to him several times in his life when he was rejected, and then he came up and said: "It's me, the ugly duckling."
Samson Ruzhentsev: “I went there when I was 15. To some extent I knew the language, but everything else was very new to me. I left alone. There is a different style of basketball, a different life in general. I would say that the first year I spent on adaptation. When other guys ask me when it is worth leaving for America or somewhere else, I always say to keep this in mind - the first year will be difficult, you will essentially lose it for gaining experience and adaptation. Of course, there were difficulties at first, I could not catch the rhythm, the game itself is faster, the style is different, but then you get used to it, and there are no more problems. When I returned for the second year, I already felt like a completely different player. Including mentally, I was ready, I knew what and how it would be approximately. Made a huge leap in progress, got better as a player.”
Already when the Ruzhentsevs agreed with the school and the school bought him a ticket to the USA, CSKA remembered Samson. Everyone called Pavel: administrators, managers, coaches, even players! But it was too late - Samson flew to America.
When asked whether he was afraid to let a 15-year-old child go to the other side of the Earth, Pavel Ruzhentsev says no. The guys who have gone through sailing are not afraid of anything at all.
Pavel Ruzhentsev: “It's not scary, because he was into sailing. Just imagine: thunder and lightning, pouring rain, keeling you. "Optimists" - they are small, they are carried there, the keel rises from behind, you turn, but he does not control. And there sit children for 8-10 years. You need to pick it up, climb in, scoop it out ... Everyone is crying, everyone is crying. But I also sent my youngest, Demu, there at the age of 6, he went there for a year.
Mom was scared, of course, but we had a plus - he has a good memory, he knew the language well. At that time, he could read the page and repeat it. Plus, he was constantly at the training camp. For three months he was in the forest, where there are mosquitoes, where there is dysentery. On the contrary, it was a holiday.
It was also lucky that Zach took him into his family. He has two children and two other players. They did not have a campus, it was quite small, for football players, and everyone else accepted it with pleasure. In Chattanooga there was a competition to take in children, foreigners who came to school. He didn't make friends with the Canadians at first, and then he didn't make friends with the Puerto Ricans. Then the Dominicans took him into their gang, when I came to him, the Dominicans said: “Don’t worry, Pablo, he is our man, he is with us, don’t worry.” I was friends with Europeans. There were different things - you had to show yourself and stand up for yourself. But when he arrived, he realized that there is such an attitude, they know that the Russian guys, whatever they are - even if they play the violin - they are different. But still, it was scary, of course, scary, especially for my mother. Although there is a constant connection, they still worried about him. ”
After his second year at school, Samson was invited to play for the Russian youth team for the U18 European Championship for the first time. Before that, Sam said that he had trouble getting used to the way basketball is played in the US; and now there are problems with the way basketball is played in Europe. At first, he even thought that he would not get into the team. But he got in. The national team then took sixth place out of 16 teams, lost 7 points to the Spaniards in the quarterfinals, and the Spaniards won that championship.
After that, Ruzhentsev returned to the USA and began his third - last - season as part of the Hamilton Heights school. He began to get much more playing time, and here is a coincidence - or not a coincidence, decide for yourself - it was in the third year that the school suddenly broke into all the ratings. Previously, for example, Shy Gilges-Alexander, a future prominent player in the NBA, or Nickel Alexander-Walker, also a notorious player, played for this school, but Hamiltom Heights has never been quoted very highly. In the third year under Samson, they became the second in the country.
And it is obvious that all kinds of journalists, scouts, experts began to show much more attention to the players than before. They were closely watched, and since Samson was one of the leaders of the team, his stakes also increased dramatically. He entered the top 50 best students in the United States.
Samson Ruzhentsev: “Actually, it was hard to believe it. When I went there, I did not count on anything like that. I had quite a few offers from universities, 15 or 20, but when I went there, I just wanted to play in the first division of colleges, that was enough for me. To be in the top 50 students in the most basketball country in the world is some kind of unrealistic achievement, in my opinion. Most of these people in this ranking play at the highest level, so this is serious. But all these ratings became like this in my last year. In the 11th grade, I showed a good game, but we were not on the radar, we won, but we were not noticed. And in the last year, our school itself was constantly in the rankings, at some point we were generally second in the country for two weeks. That’s why they started following us, and that’s why I got into the rating.”
Sam suddenly became needed by everyone at once. Only official invitations to universities he received 12 pieces, and someone called unofficially. But it was physically possible to visit only five campuses, so the family began to choose options. It was difficult: Stanford really wanted Samson, Georgia Tech really wanted Samson, many people called to them. Pavel Ruzhentsev says that representatives of the Florida Gators flew to Chattanooga several times on their own plane and assured that they were ready to put Sam in the squad right now. And, of course, in the end, the choice fell on Florida.
Samson Ruzhentsev: “It was a very difficult choice. You do not know anything about these universities, initially everyone tells you what you want to hear, they promise a lot. It's very difficult to choose. At first, I just had to cut this list down to 5 schools because I could only attend 5 universities. I chose those that showed more attention, showed that they want me, I went to each of them, looked at how training was going there, how everything was arranged there. Florida attracted me, it seemed to me that this school is more focused on basketball than others. Their training was at a very serious level. When I visited, the training was 3 hours or 2.5. She's alone a day, but that's a lot of time. Plus, a lot of players from Florida got into the NBA, so they are also aimed at this. So, in fact, at that moment the choice was obvious to me.”
But the choice was obvious only at that moment. The fact is that in the summer of 2020, several players were supposed to leave the team for the draft at once, including Scotty Lewis, whom experts drew a very high choice in the draft. But the season somehow did not work out for him, and he ... decided to stay. And everyone else decided to stay too! This could be done because the previous season was interrupted by the coronavirus, and the previous year simply did not count, was not taken into account and did not exist. It so happened that Samson went to Florida to be an iron starter, and arrived in a crowded team, which not only retained its entire lineup from last year, but also recruited newcomers.
At the beginning of the season, there was a situation where a player lost consciousness, fell and broke his nose. It was possible to release Samson, but they released everyone except Samson. There were matches when Ruzhentsev could be released for at least 3-4 minutes, but he was again kept on the bench.
Sam was promised that everyone would leave next year and he would play. But agents were already beginning to take an interest in him, among which the most notable was ... Mishko Raznatovych. The most authoritative agent in Europe has long been in touch with Pavel Ruzhentsev and was interested in the state of affairs. When it became clear that Samson could be lured to Europe, Raznatovych did not hesitate.
Samson Ruzhentsev: “They started following me at the beginning of my first and only year at Florida. Even before the start of the season, they wrote to my father, showed interest, said that they would follow, they were interested, they would like to cooperate with their son. And throughout the year they wrote many times, made themselves felt. When the season ended, they contacted me, explained the plan to me, said that there is Mega, a team that aims to promote young players. After we talked to them, I visited Mega, and the choice after that was obvious, that you need to choose Mega.
In fact, Samson could also be in Russia. Four clubs were interested in him at once - both from the Superleague and from the United League. But it is obvious that against the backdrop of options in Russia, Mega won noticeably, players are drafted from here every year: NBA MVP Nikola Jokic came to the league from there, Euroleague MVP Vasily Mitsich has not yet made it to the NBA, but was also drafted from Mega. There were others: Timote Luwavu-Cabarro, Vlatko Cancar, Goga Bitadze, Filip Petrushev... This year alone, at least four go to the draft from there.
Samson Ruzhentsev: “Again, because Mega is aimed at promoting players, and in Russia I was not sure that I would play. If I signed in the United League, then I definitely would not get as much time as I get here, and if I played in the Super League, then no one really cares about it, I think. It didn't make sense."
But it should be noted here: with all the pluses that Mega has, there are also minuses. One of them is that Mega is just a draft conveyor. This means that if, for example, certain players are drafted this year, they will get playing time no matter what. Others will get it in a year or two - they usually don't play here anymore.
And here an incident arose. It turns out that if you have already played in the NCAA, and then signed a professional contract outside the United States, then you are automatically available for the next draft. And nobody knew about it. The DraftExpress portal rolled out a rating of the most interesting players who will be drafted in 2022, and Ruzhentsev turned out to be there. Sam wrote in the comments that he seems to be drafted in a year, but he was explained. And he already explained to Raznatovich. He just didn't have players like that before, and he didn't know about this rule. This became known in the middle of the season - the same season in which Samson was not so heavily counted.
Mega has an incredible team this year. Several young guys play for the Serbian national team at once, two more for Croatia, there is a very promising Frenchman Malcolm Casalon. Breaking through them is another challenge. But Sam succeeds: he doesn’t have much time, but when he does, he can, for example, slam the Partizan loaded with stars or shoot 21 points of Buduchnost. Now the season in the Adriatic League is over, but the Serbian championship is still left - the last opportunity to show oneself before the draft.
In the summer of 2021, Samson could be in the Russian team. Then the coaching staff held a training camp for young players - the same camp when the general basketball community first heard about the existence of Anton Kardanakhishvili and Philip Gafurov. Ruzhentsev was also at the training camp, but he could not get into the national team.
Samson Ruzhentsev: “It was a good experience, I never worked with Bazarevich, I really liked it. The only thing is that I had just returned from America and immediately fell ill, severely, I spent two weeks lying around. Maybe even I had the flu, but I came to the training camp not in very good shape. But I still had a lot of fun and experience, it was great.”
In any case, Samson will still have many chances to get into the Russian team. Especially considering the fact that the national team is gradually rejuvenated.
Ruzhentsev spent this season in Serbia, in Belgrade, where his whole family recently moved. And dad, Pavel Ruzhentsev, spent almost the entire season next to his son - he supported him morally, helped with advice and even coached him.
Pavel Ruzhentsev: “At the age of 12, he got 47 free throws in a row, in Serbia he got 44 3-pointers, just no one paid attention to it. We have been working with him for the last year and a half intensively on a long-range shot, he has a very good percentage - from a distance of more than 10 meters he will hit 6-7 out of 10 shots. It is not used anywhere, but it should be supported. We have "Durant", a deviation exercise that he has been doing since he was 11 years old. Of course, we have a difficult situation in our country, but this is not the reason that I am with him. I am with him, because he needs to be supported psychologically.
I'm here with him because when he came here he sprained his groin muscles. But in Serbia and the Baltics, the issue is solved simply - an injection is given, and that's it, go ahead. But we have a guardian angel, the doctor of the youth team Mikhail Petrovich (masseur of the Russian U16 national team Mikhail Lagutin - approx. "Interception"), he called Serbia, talked with doctors, said: "Well, let's wait, let's delay it." I had to make a lot of efforts not to make this injection, so that everything would heal naturally. And he started playing the first games with this pain. Now we still do these exercises that he sends us on the Internet - they do these exercises with their son, and we repeat them. So the main reason is psychological, well, to keep fit. ”
Samson himself says that his father is an integral part of his career and helps him on any issue.
Samson Ruzhentsev: “I can't say that I do what he tells me.
In fact, these transitions occur all over the country, since many cities have arenas that host both professional basketball and ice hockey teams.
Once the ice has melted sufficiently, it is then broken up and carted off by front end loaders.
Compare those costs to the expense of building and maintaining an arena. You'll probably need to do a bit of independent research to determine some approximate costs for these things. Based upon your research, what do you conclude about the wisdom of switching from court to rink and back versus building individual arenas?
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How it works? - Blogg on the floor - Blogs 
But in America there is a clear vertical of sports, which is integrated into the education system: schools - universities - professional sports. Different sports have their own nuances, but in basketball the scheme is the simplest. After school, the best players are offered sports scholarships at universities, the competitions of which are supervised by the NCAA association, and from there students are drafted by NBA teams. 
To determine who gets to choose first, second and third, a lottery ceremony takes place in May. During this ceremony, four balls out of fourteen are drawn by lot. Combinatorics says that the number of combinations of four balls out of fourteen is 1001. For an even number, one reserve combination (“11-12-13-14”) is removed, and the remaining 1000 are distributed among teams. The bottom three clubs in the league have 14% to win the lottery, the fourth from the bottom has 12.5%, and so on; the best club that did not qualify for the play-offs has only a 0.5% chance of winning the toss. The number of wins does not affect the chances, only the place in the table. The procedure is carried out four times, determining the first, second, third and fourth numbers. If a reserve combination falls out or one that has already been (you cannot win the lottery twice in one year), then the balls are taken out of the lottery drum again. 
This strategy is called "tanking" in jargon. Prior to 1965, the NBA had a "territorial draft pick" rule, where clubs could select players from nearby colleges out of turn. But as the league expanded, that rule was dropped, and first pick was determined by a coin toss—the two bottom-place teams in their conferences had a 50% chance of being number one. So, a coin at 19'79 determined that Magic Johnson went to the Lakers, not Chicago. 
Probability percentages have fluctuated from year to year, the most recent system with the most even odds was introduced only this year and is designed to reduce the number of teams deliberately losing for the sake of a high number in the next draft (previously, the worst team received 25% chances for the first pick). 
So, last summer, San Antonio gave Kawhi Lenard to Toronto, and in return received not only two players, but also the right to choose in the 2019 draft under the Raptors pick in the first round. Last season, Toronto finished second in the regular season – and in 2019, San Antonio will choose not only under “their” 19-th peak, but also under the "Canadian" 29th. And the Lakers, as a result of various exchanges, gave up their picks in the 2019 draft in both the first (not yet official, but already negotiated trade of Anthony Davis) and in the second round, and therefore remained without draft picks at all tomorrow. 
Two-time NBA Most Valuable Player Stephen Curry was selected only seventh in 2009. Dirk Nowitzki - ninth in 1998. Kobe Bryant, one of the most popular athletes in history, once fell to number 13, as did the legendary Karl Malone. Defending champion and Finals MVP Kawhi Lenard was selected 15th, after lottery picks, along with Giannis Antetokounmpo. Nikola Jokic and Draymond Green were selected only in the second round of the draft, where a basketball player appears every year who is capable of becoming a team leader in the future. 
Let's consider both options in more detail. 
To do this, he writes an official letter to the league office with the nomination of his candidacy. The vast majority of players are just such early entry players, for example, this year there are 84 of them, and about fifty will be among the coveted 60 numbers. 
Each person either goes there automatically after graduating from college or by age 22, or wants to do it earlier and applies. All NBA players - and generally all people over the age of 22 - were in the draft, just someone was selected, and someone was not. 
You don't really need to know how to play basketball. And at 22, we were all/will automatically be in the draft, even without any applications. 
He fell in love with himself so much by playing for the school that, in order to entice him, Florida representatives flew to Chattanooga on a private plane and promised to put the striker in the squad at all costs. There are a lot of “buts” and sharp turns in this story, so if you are already interested, then watch the big video about Ruzhentsev on YouTube. 
” And there, even in winter, competitions are held, only on the snow. And he says: "Well, let him try, come on." And Samson didn't even know that I played basketball, that at 19In 1974 we were second in the Russian championship. Voronezh won, in Stavropol then there was a final. And I remembered this case, I thought, well, let him try. He came and his eyes lit up. And we had our own house, and between the second and third floors I wanted to make myself a billiard room. But he immediately hung up the ring - the one who was involved in basketball, he does not forget this. And immediately it somehow came to mind. 
I decided to sign up, went a couple of times, I really liked it. Since then, I have been constantly doing this, I immediately fell in love with sports. I started in the second squad of the 56th, then moved to the first and so on, my career has already begun. 
He takes his son to school past this village - he calls in, Samson trains there, and they go further. And at home, too, the hall was on the second floor, and there Ruzhentsev honed dribbling to the music. And so they lived. 
And here Samson's mother joined in, who said: “Well, if you can leave somewhere, then ... why, in fact, not leave?” 
I had to include moments from ... the amateur championship of the city of Korolev. 
It happened to him several times in his life when he was rejected, and then he came up and said: "It's me, the ugly duckling." 
Made a huge leap in progress, got better as a player.” 
At that time, he could read the page and repeat it. Plus, he was constantly at the training camp. For three months he was in the forest, where there are mosquitoes, where there is dysentery. On the contrary, it was a holiday. 
But still, it was scary, of course, scary, especially for my mother. Although there is a constant connection, they still worried about him. ” 
Previously, for example, Shy Gilges-Alexander, a future prominent player in the NBA, or Nickel Alexander-Walker, also a notorious player, played for this school, but Hamiltom Heights has never been quoted very highly. In the third year under Samson, they became the second in the country. 
Most of these people in this ranking play at the highest level, so this is serious. But all these ratings became like this in my last year. In the 11th grade, I showed a good game, but we were not on the radar, we won, but we were not noticed. And in the last year, our school itself was constantly in the rankings, at some point we were generally second in the country for two weeks. That’s why they started following us, and that’s why I got into the rating.” 
And, of course, in the end, the choice fell on Florida. 
The fact is that in the summer of 2020, several players were supposed to leave the team for the draft at once, including Scotty Lewis, whom experts drew a very high choice in the draft. But the season somehow did not work out for him, and he ... decided to stay. And everyone else decided to stay too! This could be done because the previous season was interrupted by the coronavirus, and the previous year simply did not count, was not taken into account and did not exist. It so happened that Samson went to Florida to be an iron starter, and arrived in a crowded team, which not only retained its entire lineup from last year, but also recruited newcomers. 
But agents were already beginning to take an interest in him, among which the most notable was ... Mishko Raznatovych. The most authoritative agent in Europe has long been in touch with Pavel Ruzhentsev and was interested in the state of affairs. When it became clear that Samson could be lured to Europe, Raznatovych did not hesitate. 
Four clubs were interested in him at once - both from the Superleague and from the United League. But it is obvious that against the backdrop of options in Russia, Mega won noticeably, players are drafted from here every year: NBA MVP Nikola Jokic came to the league from there, Euroleague MVP Vasily Mitsich has not yet made it to the NBA, but was also drafted from Mega. There were others: Timote Luwavu-Cabarro, Vlatko Cancar, Goga Bitadze, Filip Petrushev... This year alone, at least four go to the draft from there. 
This means that if, for example, certain players are drafted this year, they will get playing time no matter what. Others will get it in a year or two - they usually don't play here anymore. 
Breaking through them is another challenge. But Sam succeeds: he doesn’t have much time, but when he does, he can, for example, slam the Partizan loaded with stars or shoot 21 points of Buduchnost. Now the season in the Adriatic League is over, but the Serbian championship is still left - the last opportunity to show oneself before the draft. 
But I still had a lot of fun and experience, it was great.” 
I am with him, because he needs to be supported psychologically. 
