Astana Basketball Club ( kk, Astana Basketbol Kluby), 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 court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

club that is based in

Astana Astana, previously known as Akmolinsk, Tselinograd, Akmola, and most recently Nur-Sultan, is the capital city of Kazakhstan. The city lies on the banks of the Ishim River in the north-central part of Kazakhstan, within the Akmola Region, tho ...

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental coun ...

. Founded in 2011, it has competed in the

Kazakhstan Basketball Championship The Kazakhstan Basketball Championship (russian: Чемпионата Казахстана по баскетболу) is the highest professional basketball league in Kazakhstan, it is organised by the National Basketball Federation Kazakhstan. Its ...

and the

VTB United League VTB United League (russian: Единая Лига ВТБ) is an international professional men's club basketball league that was founded in 2008. It is made up of mostly Russian clubs, along with one each from Belarus and Kazakhstan. Since 2013, i ...

since, obtaining a slew of domestic titles in the process.

History

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

Valery Tikhonenko Valeri Tikhonenko (russian: Валерий Алексеевич Тихоненко; born 19 August 1964) is a retired Soviet and Russian professional basketball player and coach. During his playing career, he played at the small forward and powe ...

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 The Saryarka Velodrome ( kk, Сарыарқа велотрегі, ''Saryarqa velotregi''; russian: Велотрек Сарыарка) is an indoor cycle-racing track or velodrome that is located in Astana, Kazakhstan. Constructed in the shape of ...

) and the proximity of hotels, and an international airport. The side received the totality of its funding from the Samruk-Kazyna sovereign wealth fund. 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 at training and developing athletes. They typically hold a more public profile and are paid more than other Coach (sport), coaches. In some sports, the head coach is instead called the "manage ...

, 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 ( rus, Химки, p=ˈxʲimkʲɪ) is a city in Moscow Oblast, Russia, 18.25 kilometres northwest of central Moscow, and immediately beyond the Moscow city boundary. History Origins and formation Khimki was initially a railway station tha ...

, 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

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

, 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 th ...

of 10,000 people for basketball games. There is also a possibility to play games at newly built (2019) martial arts palace Zhekpe-zhek with capacity of 5000 people in the stands.

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

: **Winner (10): 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 * Kazakhstan Basketball Cup: **Winner (9): 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 *

FIBA Asia Champions Cup The FIBA Asia Champions Cup, previously known as the Asian Basketball Confederation (ABC) Champions Cup until 2002, is the Asian club championship for professional basketball. It is organised by FIBA Asia, and takes place once a year (since 19 ...

: ** ''Bronze (1)'': 2017

Head coaches

Matteo Boniciolli Matteo Boniciolli (born 18 April 1962) is an Italian basketball coach of APU Udine in the Italian Serie A2. He has been a head coach since 1999, guiding several clubs in Italy and abroad to titles, also having taken charge of the Italian natio ...

: (2011–13) * Aleksandar Trifunović: (2013–15) * Ramūnas Butautas: (2015–16) *

Ilias Papatheodorou Ilias Papatheodorou (Greek: Ηλίας Παπαθεοδώρου; born 20 June 1975) is a Greek professional basketball coach, who is currently the head coach for Kolossos Rodou of the Greek Basket League. He is also the coach of the Swiss nation ...

: (2016–17) *

Kostas Flevarakis Kostas Flevarakis ( el, Κώστας Φλεβαράκης; born 24 May 1969) is a Greek professional basketball coach, currently serving as head coach for Kosovo team KB Ylli. Coaching career After coaching in the junior teams of PAOK from 198 ...

: (2017–2018) * Mikhail Karpenko: (2018) *

Emil Rajković Emil Rajković ( mk, Емил Рајковиќ; born September 11, 1978 in Skopje) is a Macedonian former professional basketball player and current basketball coach, who currently serves as the head coach for CSKA Moscow of the VTB United League. ...

: (2018–2021) * Darko Ruso: (2021–2022) *

Dejan Parežanin Dejan Parežanin ( sr-cyr, Дејан Парежанин; born 27 May 1971) is a Serbian professional basketball coach and former player who is the current head coach for Astana of the VTB United League and the Kazakhstan Championship. Playing ...

: (2022–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. * Jerry Johnson * Rustam Murzagaliyev *

Anton Ponomarev Anton Ponomarev (born 31 October 1988) is a Kazakhstani professional basketball player who last played for BC Astana. Professional career Astana Tigers Ponomarev was brought to the capital Astana by newly formed Astana Tigers in 2000, along w ...

* Anatoliy Kolesnikov * Jānis Blūms * Rašid Mahalbašić * Ivan Paunić * Leonidas Kaselakis * Dimitrios Katsivelis *

Dmitriy Gavrilov Dmitri Alexandrovich Gavrilov (russian: Дмитрий Александрович Гаврилов; born 27 November 1986) is a Kazakhstani professional basketball player. He plays for BC Astana of the Kazakhstan Basketball Championship and the ...

Justin Carter Justin Anthony Carter (born April 21, 1987) is an American professional basketball player who last played for Oradea in the Romanian League. He played college basketball for Creighton. Professional career After going undrafted in the 2010 NBA d ...

Anthony Clemmons Anthony Charles Clemmons (born August 15, 1994) is an American-born naturalized Kazakhstani professional basketball player for Sun Rockers Shibuya of the Japanese B.League. At 1.93 meters tall, he plays in the position of point guard. College c ...

Ojārs Siliņš Ojārs Siliņš (born 20 July 1993) is a Latvian professional basketball player for Stal Ostrów Wielkopolski of the Polish Basketball League (PLK). He plays the small forward and power forward positions. Professional career Siliņš made his ...

References and notes

External links

Official websiteEurobasket.com Team Profile
{{Astana Presidential Club Astana Presidential Club Basketball teams established in 2011 2011 establishments in Kazakhstan Basketball teams in Astana