Yegor Kuleshov: Russian who combines the Israeli army and American basketball

The name Egor Kuleshov is well known to basketball fans in the United States; he is a star of the Owls basketball team at Houston's Rice University, although sports is not the only area in which this 22-year-old Russian has already distinguished himself.

His story told the publicationOur Texas".

Egor was born in Volgograd (Russia) in 1994 year. When the boy was 7 years old, his family immigrated to Israel. First there was Kibbutz Neveu-Or, then the city of Rishon-le-Zion near Tel Aviv.

Like many of his peers, Egor wanted to play football, but it so happened that almost all the guys from his class signed up for the basketball section, so Yegor’s parents decided to record him.

Now Yegor jokes that his parents “misunderstood” him, but everything turned out as well as possible. Gradually, Egor became involved in the training process, and soon began to show brilliant results.

“The pleasure of playing came in 9th grade, when I began to understand that I had a future in basketball, that I needed to move on,” says Egor.

Soon he moved to the Israeli Basketball Academy in Netanya and began to play in the youth national team.

After the European Championships, he was noticed, interesting offers began to appear, including from the USA.

“I always wanted to play in America, I was attracted to university basketball. I decided that the right step was not to go straight to college, but to finish school, play there and get used to America. I looked at different schools and chose Sagemont in Florida. It was 2011. I’m very glad that I got there, because the coaches were great, they in many ways replaced my family,” said Egor.

After high school, Egor went to study at the University of Arizona and began his first season in the University League United States (NCAA). By the way, the University of Arizona noticed a talented basketball player at the end of the first season of playing for the Sagemont team. Egor said that universities attract players to the team in different ways: they keep in touch with school coaches, send letters from the university, call, invite players to see the campus, where they show rooms for training and games, introduce the team, discuss educational opportunities and at the end invite to some party to show the “entertainment part” of university life.

But a year later, Egor decided to leave Arizona and moved to Houston to play for Command Rice University.

“It was a personal decision that was not easy for me. I decided that it would be more beneficial to play for a team at a small university so that I could play more often, prove myself better, get more minutes and good statistics. In addition, the assistant coach of the Arizona team just moved to Rice, and this became an additional incentive for me to change the team,” said Egor.

He said that the game in the university team leaves very little free time, a lot of energy is spent on preparing for the games (they are 31 in the season), but student basketball provides a unique opportunity to get an education while playing sports. Egor is learning sports management.

The team is played only by guys from Texas, Egor is the only representative of another country.

“In America there were never any problems with the fact that I was Russian; everywhere they perceived me as one of their own. Another thing is who you feel like during the game. Volgograd is my homeland, I return there every summer to visit my relatives and feel at home, but on the other hand, I play for the Israeli national team and played against Russia several times at the European championships, and now I play for the American team. It’s a strange feeling, of course, but ultimately, everyone plays for their team,” admitted Yegor.

Rice's team is proud of Egor, the coach calls him a universal player.

"I am pleased to hear that. We have to work very hard to improve the level of our team and ensure that it gets to the NCAA tournament every year. True, this is not a matter of one year or two, but I hope we will succeed,” says Yegor.

These guys are lethal from beyond the arc — the most accurate shooters in #CollegeBasketball (as of this morning)

⬇️⬇️⬇️ pic.twitter.com/cwrMdzu3xb

- HERO Sports MBB (@HEROSportsMBB) January 16, 2017

Egor considers 2015 of the year with the team of New Mexico to be his personal record when Owls had almost no chance of winning - the game was “at home” among opponents who were supported by 14 thousands of viewers and who never lost in his field.

Losing 15 points in the second half, the Texans still pulled up to a draw with 89-89. The decisive was the free throw, which Yegor Kuleshov scored a few seconds before the end of the game, becoming a real hero of the day.

“The feeling was incredible - unreal adrenaline!” recalls the athlete.

Here is the starting lineup for today's game at North Texas #RiceRising pic.twitter.com/cL6Hc9Ep3T

— Rice Men's Basketball (@RiceMBB) February 4, 2017

In the next couple of years, Egor hopes to start his professional career.

“It will be good if I play in the USA. To do this, you need to perform at a high level, show yourself in important games, and most importantly, please the managers in the NBA. It’s very difficult to get there, but a good alternative is Europe,” the athlete shared his plans and hopes.

Even while living in the United States, Yegor is a soldier in the Israeli army, although he serves a little differently than everyone else. In the summer of 2015, he went through the “course of the young fighter”, and every time he returns to Israel he is obliged to go to military training.

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