Nikita Kurbanov

Nikita Kurbanov Alexandrovich (Russian: Никита Александрович Курбанов; born October 5, 1986 in Moscow, RSFSR ) is a Russian professional basketball player. Kurbanov played since his youth for the dominant Russian series champion CSKA PBK from his hometown, but was already awarded three times to other Russian clubs. As a Russian national team, he participated in the European Basketball Championship in 2009. 2012 left Kurbanov CSKA after there his play stagnated at a low level.

Career

Kurbanov was admitted to the junior team of CSKA Moscow in 2002. In 2004, he scored at the U18 European Championship for the Russian youth team a double-double on average 21.1 points and 10.1 rebounds per game and was included in the selection of the best players of the tournament. At the tournament victory of the Russian youth team at the U20 European Championship in 2005, he was named Most Valuable Player of the tournament. Already because of this personal awards Kurbanov was long considered talentierster Russian junior players born in 1986 who has yet to summon with Anton Ponkraschow and Nikita Shabalkin other Russian players of international class. At the beginning of the season 2005 /06 he was loaned to Lokomotiw from Rostov, he returned in November 2005 Return to CSKA, where he played from then on in the men's team.

After he was 05 used in the 2004 / already in single Russian league games of the Super League Russia, Kurbanov was in season 2005/ 06 in the highest European club competition ULEB Euro League 2005 /06 season. In the Final Four tournament this competition he was in the semi-final against FC Barcelona still a good 11 minutes on the field. At the final victory over defending champion Maccabi Tel Aviv of the still 19 -year-old Kurbanov was no longer used. In the Russian competitions they defended the double of the previous year, winning the 2006 Triple. In 2007 they won again the Russian Double, but lost the final in the ULEB Euro Cup 2006/ 07 against Panathinaikos Athens. Kurbanov had under coach Ettore Messina in the crucial play-off and final matches of the Euro League only brief appearances. Unlike his teammates from the youth team and Ponkraschow Shabalkin Kurbanov was not nominated by national coach David sheet for the cadre of men's national team at the 2007 European Championships, where Russia surprisingly in the final against hosts Spain won the title. Instead Kurbanov participated with the Russian student selection at the Summer Universiade in 2007. In the season 2007/ 08 he was loaned to the Russian vice-champion UNICS from Kazan in February 2008, which is derived fittingly its tradition of a university team. With UNICS he left in the quarter -final play-off of the Russian Championship. The same fate befell the team in the second most important European club competition ULEB Cup in 2007 / 08, where you eliminated by eventual finalists Akasvasyu Girona at the " Elite Eight " - finals.

Kurbanows play had UNICS Kazan not significantly increased, and he was loaned for the 2008/ 09 season from Spartak Saint Petersburg. There he had more operating time and after a sixth place in the main round of the Russian Championship could move to the semifinals of the playoffs and ultimately finished in fourth place after they lost the series for third place against Kurbanows previous club UNICS. Then Kurbanov was also included in the national squad for the 2009 European Championships, where they lost as the defending champion in the quarterfinals to eventual finalists Serbia, and then reached the seventh place. For the 2009/10 season he returned to CSKA. In the Russian series champion he was a reserve player, especially in the ULEB Euro League 2009/10 he had seldom more than 5 minutes operating time per game. After re- double in Russia and winning the newly created Eastern European VTB United League, they lost the semi-finals of Euro League against the eventual winners FC Barcelona and reached after a win in extra time in the small final on KK Partizan Belgrade in third place. In the season 2010/11 CSKA was initially coached by Dusko Vujošević, previously longtime coach at KK Partizan. Even under coach Vujošević, as the former youth team trainer is an advancement of younger players is said to Kurbanov could not play in the foreground. Instead CSKA remained in the ULEB Euro Cup 2010/ 11 of success fails and you already retired from after the first round and reached for the first time not after nine years of the Final Four tournament this competition. After coaching change of title was celebrated in the Russian Championship, while the final match almost lost in the VTB United League against Russian runner- BK Khimki.

During the lockout in the NBA in 2011 strengthened with the CSKA unsigned Andrei Kirilenko and Nenad Krstic, who remained beyond the end of the lockout at CSKA, and was henceforth regarded as the favorite to win the title in the ULEB Euro League. Kurbanov saw even less playing time than before and has been used internationally in only four games of the preliminary and intermediate rounds and two play-off matches in the quarter-finals of the Euro League. In the Final Four tournament in the ULEB Euro League 2011/12, surprising the final game in the final minute against Olympiakos Piraeus still lost at the CSKA, he was not used at all. With hardly any match practice he could not even qualify for the final squad of the Russian national team for the 2012 Olympics. After the end of the season in which CSKA won again the Russian championship in the PBL and VTB United League 2011/12, he moved to the Russian rival BK Spartak from Saint Petersburg. A year later he left Spartak and changed again to UNICS Kazan, to which he had previously also been awarded.