Nikita Shabalkin

Nikita Alekseyevich Shabalkin (Russian: Никита Алексеевич Шабалкин; born October 10, 1986 in Ordzhonikidze, RSFSR ) is a Russian professional basketball player. After training in the youth teams of the dominant Russian basketball club CSKA from Moscow PBK Shabalkin played for various Russian clubs. In the 2011/12 season he plays for Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar from. The Russian national team won the Shabalkin Basketball Championships in 2007 and took in the 2011 European Championships bronze medal.

In 2002 Shabalkin from the youth teams of Lokomotiv from the southern Russian Mineralnye Vody in the youth team of CSKA Moscow. In 2004 he showed at the U18 European Championship strong performance with 18.5 points and 9.1 rebounds per game, but it was surpassed by his teammate Nikita Kurbanov. Then Shabalkin was borrowed from the Moscow army sports club CSKA at the Air Force Sports Club ZSK WWS from Samara, but returned in the season 2005 /06 CSKA back first, where it was used only in a few games early in the season in the men's team. So Schalbalkin went again in 2006 back to Samara and won with ZSK WWS in the season 2006/ 07 the title of the last time the played FIBA EuroCup Challenge. Then coach David took him sheet even in the face of strong performances in this competition in the squad for the European basketball championship in 2007. Although Shabalkin was used during the final round of the tournament in only half the games and then not more than five minutes per game, but in the end could celebrate with his teammates after the surprising final against hosts Spain to win the gold medal.

For the 2007 /08 season he moved back to the Moscow Oblast and played for the club from the suburb of Khimki. With this club he reached twice the final series at the Russian Cup against CSKA, where one was, however, inferior to his former club. In Eurocup 2008/ 09 they reached the second most important European club competition, the final, but lost to the Lithuanian club Lietuvos Rytas Vilnius. Shabalkin itself, however, could be in the heavily occupied by team coach Sergio Scariolo not succeed and was not used during the " Elite Eight " tournament in Turin. He also lost his place in the national teams squads and won with the Russian student selection at the Universiade 2009, the silver medal. He then moved on to triumph after Ljuberzy, another suburb of Moscow club with which he injured exposed most of the time in the season 2009 / 6:10 league games. For the season 2010/11 he moved to MBK Dynamo Moscow, where he was able to win back a place in the national teams squad again by strong performances. However, Dynamo Moscow ended the season second from bottom place in the newly created PBL and was excluded from further season in the top Russian league, whereupon Shabalkin ended his two-year contract and changed for the 2011/12 season for Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar. With the Russian national team Shabalkin won the European Championship finals in 2011 all games until the semi-finals, where they lost to France, but then defeated the surprise team of the tournament Macedonia in the match for third place and the bronze medal secured. Shabalkin itself was again only a reserve player and was used only in three games.