CSKA makes American debut Friday
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 Reigning continental champion CSKA Moscow opens the 2008 Euroleague Basketball American Tour on Friday night in Orlando, Florida in what is an historic occasion for the Russian club - its first-ever appearance in America. After a half-century in the elite of world basketball, CSKA will show its stuff to an American audience for the first time when it faces the NBA's Orlando Magic at 19:00 local time (01:00 CET on Saturday) at the Amway Arena.
It will be CSKA's 10th game of the preseason and next-to-last before it begins play in both the Russian League and the Euroleague following this 10-day trip. CSKA carries a 7-2 record for the preseason going into Friday's game. In Orlando, CSKA is trying to become the first European club ever to beat an NBA team in the United States.
CSKA had a 1-1 record against NBA teams at the 2006 NBA Europe Live tournament, defeating the Los Angeles Clippers in Moscow and losing to the Philadelphia 76ers in Cologne, Germany.
After a 15-hour trip that got them to Orlando in the wee hours of Wednesday morning, CSKA has continued its preseason preparations in Orlando with two-hour training sessions each day plus a shootaround on Friday morning, hours before the game with the Magic. Having travelled without two injured young big men - Artem Zabelin and Andrey Vorontsevich - the team also saw forward Viktor Khryapa miss some of Thursday's practice, although he's expected to see limited action on Friday night.
CSKA's remade roster features only six players - Euroleague MVP Ramunas Siskauskas, Final Four MVP Trajan Langdon, J.R. Holden, Matjaz Smodis, Alexey Savrasenko and Nikos Zisis - who saw significant playing time on last season's Euroleague championship team. One of the team's five newcomers this season, former Euroleague Rising Star Trophy winner Erazem Lorbek, is slated to start in the frontcourt alongside Smodis. They will get big-time help from another newcomer, all-Euroleague forward Terence Morris, as well as veteran center Aleksey Savrasenko.
CSKA will also have the services of new big man Alexander Kaun, who is making his second homecoming, of sorts, in just a few months. Kaun left Siberia to attend high school in central Florida seven years ago, proceeded to win an NCAA title last spring with University of Kansas, then signed with CSKA. Now he's anxious to impress plenty of friends he made in the Orlando area. "There are going to be some people here at the game who I knew well when I lived in Florida," Kaun said, "so I will try to do well for my team and for them."
 In the backcourt, newcomers Zoran Planinic and Victory Keyru are set to come off the bench to back up longtime starters Holden and Langdon, while teenage combo guard Alexey Shved will likely see some time as well.
All games of the 2008 Euroleague Basketball American Tour are being played according to NBA rules and with NBA referees.
"The fact that we'll play by their rules can make a big difference in the game, especially concerning the defensive rules," CSKA head coach Ettore Messina said in Orlando. "We are used to giving a lot of weakside help on defense, and that clashes with the defensive three-second rule in the NBA. But regardless, it will be interesting for us to face these difficulties and try to make it a close game once again."
Another factor influencing both teams is that scouting is not as much of a factor as it would be in a non-exhibition game.
"We are paying attention almost exclusively to our own team and what we want to do," Messina said. "We came up with a little general information about how to play against the Magic, but we can never call this true game preparation as we would do for a Euroleague or a Russian League game. At this time of year, it's more important to concentrate on playing together and getting our things right as a team."
The Magic have played two preseason games so far, both at home, winning one of them. They return four of five starters from last year's team, including Olympic gold medalist Dwight Howard.
Basketball is indeed becoming a global sport, and last summer we say many NBA players moved to Europe, just as many Europeans still come to America," Magic coach Stan Van Gundy said. "The chance to play against the strongest European teams is a benefit for our league, as I assume it is also for the clubs from Europe."
From Orlando, CSKA will proceed to Canada for a game next Tuesday against the Toronto Raptors. Two years ago, Maccabi Tel Aviv became the first European club to defeat an NBA team in North America when it defeated the Raptors in Toronto. The 2008 Euroleague Basketball American Tour continues when Regal F.C. Barcelona plays two games in Los Angeles the weekend of October 18-19.
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