Lokomotiv Kuban | ||||
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Nickname | Loko | |||
Leagues |
VTB United League EuroCup |
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Founded | 1946 | |||
History |
Lokomotiv Mineralnye Vody (1946–2003) Lokomotiv Rostov (2003–2009) Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar (2009–present) |
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Arena | Basket-Hall Krasnodar | |||
Capacity | 7,500 | |||
Location | Krasnodar, Russia | |||
Team colors | Red, Green, White |
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President | Andrey Vedischev | |||
Head coach | Saša Obradović | |||
Championships |
1 EuroCup 1 Russian Cup |
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Website | lokobasket.com | |||
Uniforms | ||||
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PBC Lokomotiv Kuban (Russian: ПБК «Локомотив-Кубань») is a Russian professional basketball team that is based in Krasnodar. The club participates in the VTB United League, and EuroCup. The team is one of the top tier basketball teams in Russia.
The team's honour list includes a EuroCup championship in the 2012–13 season, and a Russian Cup victory in 2000.
The history of the Lokomotiv starts back in 1946 in Mineralnye Vody. There were few volunteers to play basketball during the first after-war years – not more than 150 people. Teenagers were trained by experienced and patient mentors – railways workers Grigory Abugov and Nikolai Kharchenko. Grigory Abugov later became a famous coach, who raised a number of high-class professionals. Some of them are still in basketball as coaches.
Lokomotiv played in the first league championship for a number of years, until in 1994 it finally got into the elite of the national basketball. In 1999 Lokomotiv got the right to represent Russia in the European tournaments and won the Cup of the International Railways Sports Union.
The season 2002–03 became the final for the team from Mineralnye Vody. Lokomotiv hardly reached the play-off, taking the 8th place out of 10, where it lost to the champion CSKA Moscow in all three matches. It became obvious to many that changes needed to be made. The decision was hence made to move the club to a more developed and economically growing area – Rostov region.
The basketball club Lokomotiv Rostov was established in 2003 in Rostov-on-Don. The project was organised by Andrey Vedischev, the world-class master of sports, bronze medallist of the European Championship and the Russian National Championship.
During the next six years the club played in the city of Don. During these years the "railways'" team was one of the strongest in Russia: regularly entering the play-off of the national championship and in the European cups. The best achievement of the Lokomotiv during these years was the 5th place in the Russian National Championship (2006–07 season) and the final of the FIBA Europe Cup (2004–05 season). In the summer of 2009 the president of the Russian Railways, Vladimir Yakunin, made the decision to move the club from Rostov-on-Don to Krasnodar. The main reason for that was that the arenas in Rostov were not satisfying the requirements of the Russian National Championship and the club's European tournaments.