Shved remembers legendary final: ‘If we played Olympiacos 3-4 times more, we would win all of them’ / News - Basketnews.com

Credit: ZUMAPRESS.com - Scanpix Credit ZUMAPRESS.com - Scanpix

Alexey Shved signing with CSKA Moscow was one of the blockbuster moves this offseason in European basketball. After Mike James left the team after disagreements with the management and head coach Dimitris Itoudis, CSKA needed a new general, and they got their man.

CSKA Moscow / Schedule

CSKA Moscow Panathinaikos Athens97-77 Zalgiris Kaunas CSKA MoscowFri18:00 CSKA Moscow UNIKS Kazan12-1517:00

Shved is a prolific scorer, having claimed two Alphonso Ford Top Scorer trophies already and ranking 10th on the all-time scoring list. His career scoring average of 16.4 per game ranks fifth all-time, and he ranks fourth all-time in points scored per-40 minutes (24.6 ppg.).

This is not Shved's first stint in the CSKA. He first joined the Russian powerhouse in 2005 at the age of 16, playing for the club's youth team. It did not take long until Shved made his Euroleague debut.

The Russian superstar made his first start in the Euroleague in 2007 against Zalgiris Kaunas, the team he faces on Friday. He returned to the club the next year and was part of the group that won the 2008 Euroleague trophy.

Talking to euroleague.net, Shved expressed his admiration to the former teammates.

"I think all of the players are retired now; I am the only one still playing. They had really good careers and they taught me a lot. I was young and they taught me a lot how to play, how to pass the ball, how to play defense, all that is important."

Shved did not play an important role in CSKA until the infamous 2011-2012 season where a 19-2 performance was trumped by a heartbreaking loss to Olympiacos Piraeus in the Euroleague final.

"It was a really good shot," Shved says about Georgios Printezis game-winner with 0.7 seconds left that lifted Olympiacos to a stunning 62-61 win in Istanbul.

"We had a strong team, and I think if we played three or four more games against Olympiacos, we would beat them in all of them. But it is Final Four and you have only one game."

That year, however, did not end on a sour note for Shved. He went on to play for the Russian national team that summer that won the bronze medal in the 2012 London Olympic Games.

"It wasn't that bad a year," Shved remembers.

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