Basketball “on the level”: how to go beyond the backyard court

Last week, on August 21, the main event of the whole Russian Red Bull Half Court season took place in Kaliningrad, namely the National Final, where eight strongest men’s and 10 women’s teams found out who will represent our country at the World Final in Italy in October. It was a cool spectacle with plenty of quality 3×3 basketball, which was won by the powerful Baikal team. Their captain Denis Bergman’ s path in basketball is not quite ordinary, so we decided to ask him more about it. We got a small instruction on what to do if the court in your yard is not enough.

Baikal basketball team player

Started building my team at the age of 24.

–What do you do besides basketball and how did you choose this sport?
– Four years ago I went to Goa for a vacation and there I realized that my life was passing by. I met a lot of interesting people, had a lot of different conversations. And I came to the realization that you have to do what you love – somehow it all came together in my head then.

Back then 3×3 basketball was just gaining momentum, we didn’t know it would be at the Olympics yet, I had insider information. I came and told my mom that we were closing the business and I was going to make the first professional 3×3 basketball team in Russia. Mom said that I was good for me and that I would succeed. Dad asked: “Are you stupid? You have your own business, you should expand, not close down.” I told him I wanted to go to the Olympics. And we just started to travel with the team on our own, to qualify, to win something, we started to be noticed. And in the end, if we talk about this “transition” – you must first realize inside yourself that you are a professional. If you give yourself to your work every day, if you treat it professionally every day, then opportunities, money, trips and sponsorship will come. The main thing is to start with a professional attitude.

–So you’ve always been fond of basketball?
– Yes, I’ve been playing since childhood, I had a period when I didn’t play sports at all, I got fat up to 140 kg, then I lost weight on kickboxing. I started to play amateur basketball 5×5, we had a team “Torpedo”, from there I joined the team “Torpedo” 3×3, where I was just practicing.

–But you never managed to go completely into basketball?
– I gave myself time until the Olympics. My first and main thing is basketball. It’s not just a game, it’s already a lifestyle. Let’s say that in the first year we played 42 tournaments, 54 weeks – you spend four days with the team away, 1-2 days on the road, two days in the tournament most of the time. You come to Moscow, you have a day to recover, two days of training – and then you go again. So it’s really a way of life that you have to give yourself to now, so that it all pays off later.

–How often do you train?
– I can’t say that I’ve stopped training now, but my focus has broadened. I want my family to not need anything. When I first started, I worked out every day. We didn’t have a gym yet, we went to all the street courts. I met Sam (Semyon Debda, a player of “Baikal” – Editor’s note) on a street court . We started to play one-on-one, I see that he is tough, plays with good, angry energy. It was just what I needed.

Then after a while I had a stress fracture because I didn’t recover properly. It wasn’t explained to me at the time by knowledgeable people that you gain when you recover. And we just practiced every day, there was a lot of desire, a lot of tournaments. I realized that I had lost some time and I needed to catch up further. We got physical fitness coaches to regulate the load and proper recovery. Right now we are working 3/1. I do not have a daily opportunity to train with the guys. Before Italy, in any case, we will make up for all these gaps and look much more confident in the game.

–How do your trainings look like, except for playing on the court?
– What distinguishes a professional from an amateur? Warm-up and warm-down. We usually work in the weight room for an hour, about 50 minutes of strength training, then we go to the ball room. It can be different workouts: throwing, defense, just physical training, running. Before the tournament we reduce the load, we try to play more.

–What is most important to “pump up” a good basketball player?
– You need strong legs, strong kor, arm muscles. But in general it depends on your role in the team. Ideally, you need to be a two-meter all-rounder. Run fast, jump high, be tough, strong but soft to shoot.

–If you start playing on the court in your backyard at 25+ years old, do you have a chance to achieve something?
– Yes, here’s our example. We, kids from the street, played with the best teams in the world, beat many of them. It’s a matter of motivation, desire and patience. Again, somewhere you need the stars to align. But he who is lucky is lucky, so everything is in our hands. Now after the success at the Olympics, and I think silver medals are a success, more people will pay attention to 3×3 basketball. It will develop and reach at least the level of the first Superleague in terms of funding, attitude, professionalism.

–Do youhaveto be tall like you?
– No.Themain thing is that you have to be emotionally very strong, because if you are not ready to “die” on the court, you will lose to us, because we are ready to “die”.