Saturday evening....

My friend Stepan a few weeks ago offered to accompany me to a Professional Basketball game in Saratov and I enthusiastically agreed....
They are called Saratov Avtodor and are quite good! They lead their league and even have two American players, Courtney Fortson a point guard, and Raymond Sikes a power forward.


After my class on Saturday morning, a couple of my students, Dmitri and Sergei, also invited me to attend as well, so we all met up at the Arena, which is about a 3 minute walk from my apartment.
Dmitri bought tickets and soon we were watching a high quality basketball game! The only real deficiency in Russian b-ball is that outside shooting is a bit sub-par. This is not a problem for me---the game was well played, physical, good defense. There is a very promising young center, Artyum Klimenko, strong, athletic, great post moves.Both Dmitri and Sergei say he has declared for the NBA draft. He and Fortson have a great chemistry. Fortson, the point guard, is amazingly quick, a great passer and defender. They were some good dunks. Saratov won pretty easily.
Game is very similar to the American version----25 second shot clock, 3 point arc, 10 minute quarters. Crowd was pretty into the game. One difference, those annoying Vuvulzela mini-horns from South African World Cup fame, are a bit popular and caused some racket.
Pictures to follow.

Presidential class...

 

Presidential Program Business class. Sergei first on right, Dmitri 3rd on right.

 

Satruday morning class....

Saturday was my final class teaching the in the Institute's Presidential Program. These folks are very bright people from local corporate mid-level management, incubators, NGOs, and government. The curriculum is essentially entrepreneurship and business planning. Masha from the International Office again sacrificed some of her Saturday to be my interpreter and as usual was stellar. She told me afterwards that she and her friend Anton were taking their cat to the vet to avoid future kitten production......my animal welfare advocate friends would approve!


Anyway, this class was great! We discussed marketing, technology, financial projections, and human resources. Several times real debate and excellent discussion ensued---it got really lively when we discussed the culture of customer service in Russia. I try not to make any pronouncements regarding comparisons of different cultural behaviors. I prefer to let discussion go places organically. Let me just say again that this next generation of Russians is impressive----they recognize new management techniques, they have excellent conceptual skills, they understand practical applications. They are kind, polite, engaging. If this is a representative sample of the future generation of leaders here, this country is going to be full of opportunity. Those who take the first plunge in engaging markets here will find a plethora of bright, motivated, English speaking human resources.


There are couple of fellows in the this class, Dmitri, a banking junior exec, and Sergei, a manager in Energy Engineering Services who are especially impressive. After class they ask me if I want to see a basketball game with them that evening. Turns out I am already going with my friend Stepan, so we all arrange to meet together. Game is at 5pm and it is about 3 blocks from my apartment. Nice. Pictures and story to follow.