MBC Dynamo Moscow

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MBC Dynamo Moscow (Russian: Динамо Москва) is a Russian basketball club. Created in 1923 when Russia was part of the Soviet Union (USSR), Dynamo is among the oldest sports clubs in the country. Its name was chosen because Dynamo means 'power in motion'. The club was backed by the State Political Directorate (GPU), a police apparatus of the USSR. That is why the team has always been thought of as the police club, while cross-town rival CSKA Moscow was the army club. However, the connection between the police and the sportsmen at Dynamo has been almost non-existent in recent years. Dynamo quickly earned a reputation outside the Soviet Union borders due to its success in major sports such as football, handball, ice hockey and, of course, basketball. Dynamo Moscow won the USSR Championship in 1937 and 1948 and also made it to the final in 1944 and 1990.

Over the decades, Dynamo earned a reputation for being among the strongest teams nationally and around the continent. Dynamo finished third in the Soviet Union League standings in 1946, 1957 and 1958, as well as making it to the 1950 and 1952 USSR Cup final. Years of domestic obscurity followed in which the team could not achieve any remarkable domestic success, although it reached the final of the European Cup Winners' Cup tournament in 1968, losing to Slavia Prague. A few former Dynamo players participated in some of the most historic moments in USSR sport. Aleksandar Bolosev was a member of the Olympic Team that won the gold in Munich 1972. Furthermore, Vladimir Zigili, one of the most famous players in Dynamo’s history, was World Champion in Puerto Rico in 1974.

The team found new success outside its domestic borders in the mid-1990s. Dynamo made it all the way to the Cup Winers Cup semi-final in 1991, losing to eventual champ PAOK Thessaloniki. The team also qualified for the Korac Cup in 1992, 1994 and 1995 without much success, despite having players like Sergei Bazarevich, Pavel Astakhov, Sergei Babenko or Evgeni Pashutin. Things changed in 1996, however, as Dynamo shined in the 1996 Saporta Cup. The club brought in players like Bazarevich, Vitaly Nosov, Igor Gratchev and Valeri Daineko. Dynamo went all the way from the previous round, survived the group stage and made it to the best-of-three semi-finals playoffs. Tau Ceramica swept the series with a 87-98 road win in Moscow and a 104-93 home thriumph in Vitoria, and it went on to win the title against PAOK. The club could not live up to the expectations and one year after that, in 1997, Dynamo Moscow disappeared due to financial reasons despite having played the Euroleague for the first time in club history.

It wasn't until 2001 when Dynamo reappeared in the Russian basketball scene. MBC Dynamo Moscow was created under the support of the Dynamo society and its chairman Vladimir Pronichev. Dynamo entered the Russian League second division in the 2001-02 season and won the title that very same year, returning to the elite of Russian basketball. The club had to face new financial problems but once again the Dynamo organization, led by chairman Viktor Zakharov and his assistant Vladimir Mikhalevsky, stepped up to solve all troubles and give the team the economic stability it needed. MBC Dynamo Moscow joined the Dynamo organization in Moscow City and found a new president in his ex-coach Evgeny Gomelsky, brother of the legendary coach and former CSKA president, the late Aleksandar Gomelsky. Dynamo finished sixth in the 2002-03 Russian League with players like Nikita Morgunov, Martin Muursepp, Bazarevich, Aleksander Milosserdov or Dmitry Domani, who remains now as the team captain. Dynamo did even better in the 2003-04 season, in which players like Nikos Ekonomou, Jimmy Oliver, Nikolay Padius, Damir Mrsic and the late Kenyon Jones helped the team to make it to the Russian League semi-finals.

Dynamo continues taking steps forward and making a big financial effort to incorporate some of the best European players in the market. As such, for 2004-05, Dynamo signed the Euroleague all-time top rebounder, Mirsad Turkcan, the 2003-04 Euroleague regular season top scorer Lynn Greer, center Lazaros Papadopoulos and solid, well-rounded veterans such as Arriel McDonald, Trajan Langdon, Ksystof Lavrinovic and Andrei Fetisov. Dynamo won difficult Group D in the ULEB Cup regular season and was considered a top candidate to go far in the elimination rounds, especially when the team won the first leg of the two-way eighth-finals series on the road against Hemofarm, 81-84, but on his own court they lost by 75-96! Dynamo once again has a competitive roster in which Papadopoulos, Domani and Valentin Koubrakov returned to be joined by some team-oriented players such as Ruben Douglas, Mire Chatman, Bojan Popovic, Hanno Mottola and Antonis Fotsis. Moreover, Dynamo landed one of the best head coaches in European basketball history, none other than the legendary Dusan Ivkovic. With the right environment, a solid roster, a great coach and the hunger to win its first-ever European title, the sky is the limit for the reborn, reloaded MBC Dynamo Moscow.