Astana Basketball Club (), commonly referred to as BC Astana, is a Kazakh professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

club that is based in

Astana Astana is the capital city of Kazakhstan. With a population of 1,423,726 within the city limits, it is the second-largest in the country after Almaty, which had been the capital until 1997. The city lies on the banks of the Ishim (river), Ishim ...

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a landlocked country primarily in Central Asia, with a European Kazakhstan, small portion in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the Kazakhstan–Russia border, north and west, China to th ...

. Founded in 2011, it has competed in the

Kazakhstan Basketball Championship The Kazakhstan Basketball Championship () is the highest professional basketball league in Kazakhstan, organised by the National Basketball Federation Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan is a member of FIBA Asia, as the country lies partly in Asia, and Kazak ...

and the

VTB United League The VTB United League () is an international professional men's club basketball league that was founded in 2009. It is made up of mostly Russian clubs, along with one each from Belarus and Kazakhstan. Since 2013, it is the first tier of Russian ...

since, obtaining many domestic titles in the process.

History

BC Astana was created in March 2011, with the aim of competing in the

. Valery Tikhonenko was chosen as the team's general director. There were doubts expressed by other clubs in the VTB United League, about whether or not the club would be a good addition to the competition, due to the lack of basketball tradition in Kazakhstan; but the side answered all the admission requirements, including their budget, stadium (a revamped Saryarka Velodrome) and the proximity of hotels, and an international airport. The side received the totality of its funding from the

Samruk-Kazyna Joint-stock company «Sovereign Wealth Fund «Samruk-Kazyna» (, ), officially known as the National Welfare Fund "Samruk-Kazyna" (), is a sovereign wealth fund and joint stock company in Kazakhstan which owns, either in whole or in part, a num ...

sovereign wealth fund A sovereign wealth fund (SWF), or sovereign investment fund, is a state-owned investment fund that invests in real and financial assets such as stocks, Bond (finance), bonds, real estate, precious metals, or in alternative investments such as ...

. They would sign a number of Kazakhstani players from successful side Astana Tigers, also recruiting their

head coach A head coach, senior coach, or manager is a professional responsible for training and developing athletes within a sports team. This role often has a higher public profile and salary than other coaching positions. In some sports, such as associat ...

, Vitaly Strebkov, to serve as the team's assistant coach. In their first season in the VTB United regional league, the team from Kazakhstan won 7 games out of 16 during 2011–12 regular season, including games against strong sides, such as Žalgiris and the defending title holders,

Khimki Khimki (, ) is a city in Moscow Oblast, Russia. It is located approximately northwest from central Moscow, and is part of the Moscow metropolitan area. History Origins and formation Khimki was initially a railway station that had existed sin ...

, nearly reaching the playoffs. They had more success on the domestic front, winning the Kazakhstani national domestic league championship, and the Kazakhstani Cup. The team became a part of the

Astana Presidential Club The 'Astana' Presidential Club () is a Sports club, multi-sports club established under the initiative of Nursultan Nazarbayev in 2012. The main aim of the Club is to support and develop professional sports and sports of high achievement in Kazakhs ...

multi-sports club A sports club or sporting club, sometimes an athletics club or sports society or sports association, is a group of people formed for the purpose of playing sports. Sports clubs range from organisations whose members play together, unpaid, and ...

, when it was formed in December 2012.

Arenas

BC Astana plays its home basketball games at the Saryarka Velodrome, which has a

seating capacity Seating capacity is the number of people who can be seated in a specific space, in terms of both the physical space available and limitations set by law. Seating capacity can be used in the description of anything ranging from an automobile that ...

of 10,000 people for basketball games.

Logos

BC Astana Logo.png, Logo (2011–2017) BC Astana 2017 logo.png, Logo (2017–2022) BC Astana 2022 logo.png, Logo (2022–present)

Players

Current roster

Depth chart

Season by season

Trophies and awards

FIBA Asia Champions Cup The Basketball Champions League Asia (BCL Asia), formerly the FIBA Asia Champions Cup, is an annual continental club men's basketball competition organised by FIBA Asia. It is the highest level club competition for basketball in Asia. Introduce ...

: ** ''Bronze (1)'': 2017 * West Asia Super League ** Bronze medal (1): 2022–23 *

: ** Winner (11): 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 *

Kazakhstan Basketball Cup The Kazakhstan Basketball Cup () is the national men's professional basketball cup competition in the country of Kazakhstan. It is organised annually over a few days in a single location by the National Basketball Federation Kazakhstan. Its offic ...

: ** Winner (11): 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023

Head coaches

Matteo Boniciolli Matteo Boniciolli (born 18 April 1962) is an Italian basketball coach of Scafati Basket in the Italian Lega Basket Serie A (LBA). He has been a head coach since 1999, guiding several clubs in Italy and abroad to titles, also having taken charge ...

: (2011–13) * Aleksandar Trifunović: (2013–15) * Ramūnas Butautas: (2015–16) * Ilias Papatheodorou: (2016–17) * Kostas Flevarakis: (2017–2018) * Mikhail Karpenko: (2018) * Emil Rajković: (2018–2021) * Darko Ruso: (2021–2022) * Dejan Parežanin: (2022) * Oleg Kisilev: (2022–2024) * Fotis Takianos: (2024–present)

Notable players

:To appear in this section a player must have either: - Set a club record or won an individual award as a professional player.
- Played at least one official international match for his senior national team. * Rašid Mahalbašić * Leonidas Kaselakis * Dimitrios Katsivelis * Dmitriy Gavrilov * Rustam Murzagaliyev * Anton Ponomarev * Anatoliy Kolesnikov *

Jānis Blūms Jānis Blūms (born 20 April 1982) is a Latvian former professional basketball player. Standing at , Blūms played point guard and shooting guard positions. He also served as captain of the Latvia national team. Professional career Blūms starte ...

* Ojārs Siliņš *

Ivan Paunić Ivan Paunić ( sr-cyr, Иван Паунић; born January 27, 1987) is a Serbian former professional basketball player. He also represented the Serbia national basketball team, Serbian national basketball team internationally. Professional care ...

* Justin Carter * Anthony Clemmons * Jerry Johnson * Adonis Thomas * Isaiah Whitehead

References and notes

External links

Official website

Eurobasket.com Team Profile
{{Astana Presidential Club Astana Presidential Club Basketball teams established in 2011 2011 establishments in Kazakhstan Basketball teams in Astana VTB United League teams