Over the past year, fans have become accustomed to news about records coming from overseas. Until recently, their main supplier was hockey player Alexander Ovechkin. But in the 2025/26 season, successes in the NBA were added to the achievements of our athletes in the NHL. This became possible thanks to the play of Yegor Demin, who again played a great match the day before with the Brooklyn Nets.

If the Russian does not slow down, then in the future, like Ovechkin, he has every chance to go down in the history of North American sports.

On the way to a dream

Russian representation in the NBA has always been more modest than in the NHL. And even with certain achievements, and Timofey Mozgov and Alexander Kaun, by the way, became league champions, the thought does not arise to compare the successes of Russian hockey players and basketball players overseas. How many American basketball fans now remember Sergei Monya, Yaroslav Korolev, Pavel Podkolzin?

Only Andrei Kirilenko stands out from the general background – the Russian forward played in the NBA for quite a long time. I even once went to an all-star game, where I played side by side with people like Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal, Tim Duncan, Dirk Nowitzki, Yao Ming, Allen Iverson. But how many star matches did our hockey players have overseas?

With all due respect to the AK-47 game, he still does not reach the level of a North American basketball legend. Time will tell whether Yegor Demin, who powerfully broke into the NBA at the age of 19, will be able to write his name into history. But for now, the Brooklyn Nets basketball player is doing everything possible to make his dream come true.

Prolific newcomer

Kirilenko was selected by the Utah Jazz in the first round of the NBA draft as the 24th pick, and Brooklyn took Demin eighth. But these were still advances, which have so far been fully justified. The newcomer regularly appears on the court, and with the exception of the first couple of weeks of the season, in the starting lineup. At the same time, Egor is not just serving his number: in the last six matches he scored at least 14 points, in two cases he reached the 20 point mark.

Egor Demin / Photo: © Pamela Smith / Stringer / Getty Images Sport / Gettyimages.ru

In the next regular season game, the first basketball player in the league with the letter “e” on his uniform scored 23 points in the match against Golden State. Demin managed not only to repeat his best result, but also set a Brooklyn record for three-pointers among newcomers – seven accurate hits from behind the arc. True, the Russian team still lost with a score of 107:120, but in the context of the personal success of our basketball player overseas, this is a secondary issue.

Of course, to achieve sporting greatness, Egor needs to spend more than one season at this level, but at least a dozen and a half. Demin, with 275 points in the NBA, did not even reach the results of Sergei Karasev (287), although he can do this in the next game. And then new landmarks will appear: Viktor Khryapa (643), Alexey Shved (1349), Timofey Mozgov (3072) and, of course, Andrey Kirilenko (9431). When the Russian surpasses the results of the AK-47, then we can talk about an established star in the NBA. In the meantime, we can only wish our basketball player not to lower his demands on himself and avoid serious injuries.

San Antonio lost to Cleveland in a home game of the NBA regular season.

The meeting ended with a score of 113:101 (25:26, 24:29, 27:23, 37:23) in favor of the guests. The most productive player of the match was Cleveland basketball player Jarrett Allen, who scored 27 points. For San Antonio, Victor Vembanyama scored a double-double with 26 points and 14 rebounds.

Cleveland (18 wins/16 losses) is in eighth position in the Eastern Conference standings. San Antonio (23/9) is second in the West.

Results of other matches of the game day:

“Washington” — “Phoenix” — 101:115

“Charlotte” — “Milwaukee” — 113:123

“Toronto” – “Orlando” – 107:106

“Miami” — “Denver” — 147:123

“Chicago” – “Minnesota” – 101:136

“Houston” — “Indiana” — 126:119

“New Orleans” — “New York” — 125:130

“Oklahoma City” — “Atlanta” — 140:129

Portland – Dallas – 125:122

Russian basketball player Egor Demin set a Brooklyn record among newcomers for the number of three-pointers made in one match, the club’s press service reports.

In the NBA regular season match, Brooklyn lost to Golden State with a score of 107:120. Demin made 7 three-point shots, which is a club record among newcomers.

In total, Demin scored 23 points in the match, the Russian repeated his personal record for scoring in the NBA – he had previously scored 23 points in the November match with Philadelphia (103:115).

Brooklyn has 10 wins and 20 losses in 30 matches. Demin’s team is 12th in the Eastern Conference standings.