By Cesare Milanti / info@eurohoops.net
Leaving the EuroLeague in February 2022 following the invasion of Ukraine that forced Russian teams to be excluded from the competition, Alexey Shved could come back to it soon.
Interviewed by former player Viktor Pavlenko, in fact, the 34-year-old shooting guard commented he’s on the verge of leaving once again CSKA. As reported by Russian journalist Artem Komarov, Alexey Shved confirmed he will soon leave Moscow after having received interest from China and the EuroLeague. Moreover, the 2008 EuroLeague champions said he had conversations with Olympiacos.
Coming back to CSKA Moscow in 2021 after playing first with the Russian capital’s team from 2006 to 2012, Alexey Shved averaged 16.1 points, 3.4 rebounds, and 7.6 assists per game in 25:58 minutes of playing time over 34 appearances. He couldn’t bring his team to the VTB Finals.
Before playing once again with his first professional team, the 34-year-old experienced Russian player spent six years with Khimki Moscow, being named the 2016-17 EuroCup MVP and inserted into the competition’s First Team. He also had several NBA experiences with Minnesota, Philadelphia, Houston, and New York.
At the beginning of May, he was the victim of an assault by a hooligan in Moscow that caused him a serious head injury. Fortunately, as can be also seen through the video interview, Alexey Shved is now back in shape.
CSKA later confirmed releasing Shved.
“Thank you to PBC CSKA and all the fans for the last two seasons! Thanks you to Andrey Vatutin, Natasha Furaeva, Natasha Kuznetsova, all the guys from the club who were always there and helped a lot. Thank you to all the coaches, we had a great atmosphere within the team. Thank you to the players with whom we fought together on the floor and spent good time off the floor, we talked a lot and it was interesting. Together we have done a great job. I wish you all only the best, good luck and victories! I’ll miss you!” mentioned the 34-year-old guard.
Per the press release: “The second arrival of the Shved in CSKA turned out to be individually bright. At the end of each of the two seasons, the basketball player became the best scorer of the team (13.6 points in the 2021-22 season, 16.6 in the 2022-23 season), set several club and league records. Unfortunately, injuries – a broken finger in the Game 7 of 2022 Finals and an ankle injury at the finish of the last regular season – prevented both Alexei and the whole team from winning the gold medals.
In total, the graduate of the Army Youth Project played eight seasons for the main team, 271 games, including 127 starts, scored more than 2,500 points and 600 assists, recorded many double-doubles and spectacular, memorable moments. Alexey is one of the most popular players in the modern era of Russian basketball. It is not in vain that from year to year he has invariably become one of the leaders in All-Star Games votings, and was recently chosen by fans in the All-CSKA post-Soviet team.”
PHOTO CREDIT: VTB