Dmitri Nikolayevich Sokolov

Dmitri Sokolov
Player information
Full name	Dmitri Nikolayevich Sokolov
birthday	January 21, 1985
place of birth	Stavropol region , Soviet Union
size	214 cm
position	center
Club information
society	UNICS Kazan
league	PBL / VTB
Clubs as active
2001–2002 Pulkowo Saint Petersburg 2002–2006 Lokomotiw Mineralnyje Vody / Rostow 2006–2009 UNICS Kazan 2009–2013 PBK CSKA Moscow 2013–2015 UNICS Kazan Since 2015 Krasny Oktyabr Volgograd 0
National team
Since 2009 00	Russia

Dmitri Nikolajewitsch Sokolow ( Russian Дмитрий Николаевич Соколов ; born January 21, 1985 in the Stavropol region , RSFSR ) is a Russian basketball player . Sokolow played from 2006 at the top Russian club UNICS from Kazan and in 2009 moved to the dominant Russian basketball club PBK ZSKA from Moscow . That year he also took part in the 2009 European Basketball Championship in Poland as a member of the Russian national team. In 2013 he returned to UNICS Kazan.

Career

After winning the silver medal at the U16 European Championship in 2001, Sokolow moved with the Russian cadet selection from his home region of Stavropol to the fourth division team Pulkowo from Saint Petersburg . After a good performance at the U18 European Championship in 2002, he moved back to the Stavropol region to the first division and Korać Cup finalists 2002 Lokomotiw from Mineralnyje Vody . After a successful European Cup season before and a third place in the Russian championship, Lokomotiw faltered in the 2002/03 season and barely reached the play-offs for the Russian championship, in which they were eliminated in the first round against eventual champions CSKA. The club was then transferred to Rostov . In a Superleague Russia enlarged by three clubs , the performance was repeated in the seasons 2003/04 and 2005/06: After an eighth place in the main round, they were eliminated in the first play-off round against the later title holder CSKA without a win. In the 2004/05 season they ended up in sixth place and played in the first round against UNICS Kazan, who were only narrowly defeated with two wins and three defeats.

It was UNICS Kazan who signed Sokolow, meanwhile European U20 champion with the Russian junior selection from 2005, in the 2006/07 season. Sokolow received little playing time in his first season for UNICS and was sometimes also used in the reserve team. In that season UNICS reached the final series of the championship and was runner-up behind CSKA Moscow. After an early elimination in the first play-off round in 2008, they reached third place in the Russian championship in 2009 and won the Russian Cup competition after being a finalist in this competition in 2007. In the second most important European club competition, the ULEB Cup , they reached the semi-finals in 2007, which were lost to the eventual title winners Real Madrid , the quarter-finals in 2008 and the top 16 group stage in 2009. Sokolow was able to increase his statistical values ​​in almost every season and had a double-digit point average per game at European level in the 2008/09 season.

After he had previously worked through all the Russian selection teams in the youth and junior division, he was nominated by national coach David Blatt for the first time in 2009 for a final squad in the men's division. At the 2009 European Championship , the Russian national team took up the title defending team, but ended up in seventh place after losing to Serbia in the quarter-finals . Sokolow remained inconspicuous in the national team and was not used in two games. After a good 2008/09 season he was signed by the dominant Russian basketball club CSKA Moscow, which had previously given up the long-time national team center player Alexei Zavrasenko . Sokolow was able to win the Russian double and the first regular event of the Eastern European VTB United League with CSKA 2010 . At one of the leading European basketball clubs, Sokolow had to fight for his playing time again, just as he did at the beginning of his time at UNICS. In his first year 2009/10, in which ZSKA reached third place in the most important European club competition ULEB Euroleague 2009/10 , he was used less than ten minutes per game. At the beginning of his second season, his playing time doubled, especially in the ULEB Euroleague, also due to an injury to Alexander Kaun , but ZSKA was also eliminated in the preliminary round and did not reach the Final Four tournament in this competition for the first time in nine years . In the end, it was enough to defend the title in the Russian championship after narrowly losing the final of the VTB league against runner-up BK Chimki .

In the following two seasons, in which CSKA continued to win the Russian championships and the VTB United League, Sokolow had few shares in the game in relation to his teammates Nenad Krstić and Alexander Kaun and could not recommend himself for any final squad of the Russian national team, which he did also missed participation in the 2012 Olympics . In the ULEB Euroleague they lost in the final in 2012 and in the semifinals in 2013 against the respective title winner Olympiacos . After the 2012/13 season, his contract with CSKA was finally no longer renewed and he moved back to UNICS Kazan.

Web links

• SOKOLOV, DMITRY - Statistics on the websites of the ULEB (English)
• archive.fiba.com: Players - Dmitry SOKOLOV (RUS) - Overview of participation in FIBA tournaments (English)
• PBC CSKA Moscow | Team | Dmitry Sokolov - player profile on the pages of CSKA Moscow