19/08/2021
Yaroslav Korolev's career developed rapidly. He showed an outstanding performance at the 2003 European Junior Championships in Belgrade (our team then took bronze) and was the leader of CSKA in the victorious 2005 Euroleague youth. As a result, the Los Angeles Clippers chose 18-year-old Yaroslav at the highest number 12 (the record among Russian players in the entire history) in the 2005 NBA Draft. But he failed to build an impressive career. For two seasons, the basketball player played 34 matches in the NBA, never becoming a full-fledged player in the rotation of the Californians.
Yaroslav Korolev returned to Russia, where he played for Dynamo under the leadership of David Blatt, tried to return to the NBA through the Development League, and also managed to play in Spain, Greece and the United League. At the age of 29, the basketball player retired. Now Yaroslav lives in Los Angeles, but often visits Moscow. In an interview with Izvestia, he spoke about his new job, the prospects of Maria Vadeeva in the WNBA, the mistake of the Lakers club, which signed LeBron James, and the problems of domestic basketball.
The champion is coming to us: CSKA will try to beat Real again
In case of a home victory, the Russian club will move up to second place in the Euroleague standings
- You haven't given an interview for a long time. What is Yaroslav Korolev doing now?
- I have my own basketball school in Los Angeles, with a full-fledged coaching staff, manager. We work with children between the ages of 3 and 13, giving them in-depth training in all aspects of basketball. We have both a beginner level and 8-10-year-old children already working in teams. Games are held on Sundays. Once a month we go to a tournament, the essence of which is simple: three matches are played on Saturday, according to their results, either you go to the playoffs for games on Sunday, or you go home.
In addition, we also train trainers for schools that work on extended programs. If the school and children are interested in acquiring additional knowledge of basketball, we send one or two specialists to the school. It must be understood that this is not an additional physical education lesson, when the teacher throws the ball to 20 children, and they do what they want. Each coach works with a maximum of 10 children for one hour, but this time is very busy and most productive. 15–20 minutes - dribbling, 15–20 minutes - assists, then - throws. If a place at school permits, children can play, but it is important to take into account one point: this is an extended program, and the level of preparation of students is very low.
- If we consider any training as a kind of social or professional lift, then on what “floor” is your school located?
- Let's start from the very bottom and look at how basketball works in the United States. Ground floor - parks and streets. There the trainers are volunteers. Parents themselves bring their children to workout once a week, and on Sundays all comers are divided into two groups, and they play with each other. Second floor: the best players are selected from the same children, who are assigned additional training. There may be a fee for these classes. Sometimes the coaches are parents who once played themselves. Floor three, this is most likely my school. Children purposefully come here twice a week: one training for technique, the second for tactics. The next step is to select the guys from among those who have been coming to me for two years, to the group with which we will analyze the video. An hour before training, we get together and watch our games, evaluate certain situations, learn to analyze an opponent. The fourth floor is already high school (the senior stage of school education in the USA is grades 9-12). The fifth floor is a college or university. Sixth - pro, optimally - NBA.
