Khimki Basketball Club announced today that they have signed Carlos Delfino for three seasons. The signature of this contract has become the third most important operation in Europe and three U1st Sports offices have taken part in it (New York, Buenos Aires and Moscow). Delfino, a 6-6 guard, has spent the past season playing for Toronto Raptors where he averaged 8.6 points, 4.8 rebounds and 2.2 assistants per game. He began his professional career playing in his native Argentina playing for Unión de Santa Fe and Libertad de Sunchades from 1998 to 2000. In 2000 he signed with Italian Reggio Calabria and from to 2002 to 2004 he played with Skipper Bologna. In 2003 he was first-round choice (25th overall) by Detroit and he played in the Detroit Pistons from 2004 to 2007.
With the Argentinean National Team he claimed the Gold Medal at the 2004 Olympics in Athens (Greece).
“I am so excited about joining Khimki” said Delfino ”I really wanted to play in Europe again. Khimki has a very ambitious project and they are on their way to becoming one of the strongest teams in Russia and in Europe. I’m going to give it all I have”.
Delfino is now on the roster of the Argentinean National Team and will participate at the Olympics Games that will take place in August in Beijing. On September 10th he will sign his contract and make the official presentation with the local media in Moscow.
Basketball Club Khimki was founded on January 5th 1997. It took Khimki less than 2 years to become one of Russia’s basketball elite. The 1999/00 season was the start of the club’s international history. The 2004/05 season was marked by some prominent prize achievements – 3rd place in FIBA Euroleague; the 2005/06 season – 2nd place in the Russian Championship, runner-up in both the Russia Cup and FIBA Eurocup (the Silver season); in the 2006/07 season – 3rd place in the Russian Championship. In the 2007/08 season Khimki earned the Russia Cup title, also having finished the regular domestic season at the 2nd position with only 2 losses, against CSKA.
Over the years the Khimki roster has been graced by such celebrated players as the Olympic champion Ruben Wolkowisky (NT Argentina), Ademola Okulaja (NT Germany), Oscar Torres (NT Venezuela), a well-known American guard Melvin Booker, Teemu Rannikko (NT Finland), Boris Gorenc (NT Slovenia) and Gian Marco Pozzecco (NT Italy). There are now 3 current European champions and Olympic Team candidates on the team – Anton Ponkrashov, Nikita Shabalkin and Nikita Morgunov (NT Russia), there is also another Olympic Team candidate, Vitaly Fridzon.