Having finished the inaugural Farm League with a Bronze set, BC Kyiv’s youngsters are now fully enjoying a well-deserved summer break. Their head coach Vitaliy Cherniy, however, has no chance of dreaming about a vacation – always busy with work he talked to our website prior to taking off to Istanbul, where he is attending an NBA organized clinic.

“NBA-Europe every summer organizes two clinics in different countries”, said Vitaliy in his interview. “This time it’s held in Istanbul and some NBA players and coaches  have arrived to share their knowledge, hold clinics, get to know top European prospects. Kyiv’s Roman Virastyuk, Dmytro Marchenko and I will represent Ukraine in this event. I will try to meet other coaches, see how they work, exchange ideas”.

How are the participants of the event chosen?

“I don’t know much about how the candidates to the event are chosen. Out of all our coaches I was the one to be picked, which makes me quite happy”.

Most likely this is a direct result of your club’s successful season. And just a year ago it was hard to imagine you head-coaching a junior team after being an assistant coach for the National Team.

“Well, I want to be able to achieve something in basketball and it’s very hard to grow if you don’t head coach. That was the reason why I didn’t hesitate to accept Kyiv’s offer. I realized it would be hard to head coach First team without going through the minor leagues. It was a big risk and a great responsibility and, at the same time, a great challenge”.

What was especially beneficial in this past season?

“The fact that we managed to communicate with each other. The players bought into my system, which allowed us to succeed”.

It’s obvious because most of the players you coached are national teams’ candidates.

“Indeed. When the season was over I wished my players to earn their spots on the national teams. To work hard as the competition there is very tough. They won’t have a long break: a new season starts right after the old one wraps up”.

How did you manage to earn the respect of your players?  

“I think the guys felt that this new coach brought a lot of interesting ideas they liked. My age was also a factor and it made things much easier for young and ambitious players jell with a young and ambitious coach. All of us are just starting to take serious steps in our careers”.

Are you going to have at least a short break this summer?

“After I come back from Turkey we will start the cadet team preparations. We will have 4 camps and one friendly tournament before the August Eurobasket in Italy. After that it will be the time to start preparing for another season with BC Kyiv. I’ll have some rest a bit later”.