BC SKA Alma-Ata () was a former Soviet basketball club from the city of Alma-Ata. In 2013 the club has merged into BC Almaty to serve as the reserve squad in the second division Higher league under the name Almaty Legion KazNU ()

History

In 1978 in Alma-Ata (now

Almaty Almaty, formerly Alma-Ata, is the List of most populous cities in Kazakhstan, largest city in Kazakhstan, with a population exceeding two million residents within its metropolitan area. Located in the foothills of the Trans-Ili Alatau mountains ...

) on the basis of the

multi-sport A multi-sport event is an organized sporting event, often held over multiple days, featuring competition in many different sports among organized teams of athletes from (mostly) Nation state, nation-states. The first major, modern, multi-sport ev ...

society "SKA" (спортивный клуб Армии) created the eponymous basketball club. The team played in the lower leagues, up to 1985, when the team won the first league championship and promoted to the

USSR Premier Basketball League The USSR Premier Basketball League, or Soviet Union Premier Basketball League (also called Supreme League), was the first-tier men's professional basketball league in the former Soviet Union. The league existed from 1923 to 1991, as the top prof ...

. In the seasons 1988-89 and 1989-90 SKA held the final 4 of the Premier League. In the Open CIS Cup of 1991-92 the team began as the SKA, and in 1992 finish the league season already as "Zhulduz" and won the "silver" medal, against the champions of Spartak Leningrad. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, most of the staff of SKA, basketball players along with coach Oleg Kim, moved to

Samara Samara, formerly known as Kuybyshev (1935–1991), is the largest city and administrative centre of Samara Oblast in Russia. The city is located at the confluence of the Volga and the Samara (Volga), Samara rivers, with a population of over 1.14 ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

and immediately declared to the big leagues of the first championship of Russia in 1992 as

CSK VVS Samara BC Samara () is a Russian professional basketball team based in Samara. History BC Samara (1976–2002) Club was founded in Tolyatti as BC Azot. Club was a silver medalist of the Russian Super League 1 in 1992, and a 3-time bronze medalist, ...

. The rest of the club under the name ''CSKA Almaty'' (ЦСКА Алмату) continued to play in the new formed Kazakhstan basketball leagues. In the 2009-10 season the club won the championship of Kazakhstan's second league,http://www.asia-basket.com/team.asp?Cntry=KAZ&Team=10331 2009/2010 season Second League Kazakhstan having won 24 games out of 24, had a right to play in the Premier League.

Names through history

* 1978-1991 ''SKA Alma-Ata'' * 1992-1993 ''Zhulduz'' * 1993-2013 ''CSKA Almaty'' * 2013-to present ''Almaty Legion KazNU''

References

{{Reflist Basketball teams established in 1978 Basketball teams in Kazakhstan