International Flavor

The Clippers, here for training camp and two exhibition games with Russian teams, started their week with some sightseeing the morning after their arrival.

The team piled out of a tour bus Sunday at St. Basil’s Cathedral, on Red Square, with about half of the players looking sleepy and jet-lagged. Most of the others, perhaps more excited about seeing Moscow, toted cameras and snapped away at the cathedral’s brightly colored onion domes and the nearby Kremlin towers.

“This is beautiful, man,” said forward Tim Thomas, admiring St. Basil’s after the obligatory team photo shoot. “Never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d be in Russia.”

A few hours later, at the Clippers’ first practice here, Coach Mike Dunleavy and guard Sam Cassell stressed that this trip was mostly about getting ready for the NBA season.

“It is a business trip, this is training camp for us,” Cassell said. “I won’t be out doing the whole tour thing. We’re here to win. We’re not here just to enjoy the country of Russia.”

The Clippers are among four NBA teams conducting training camps in Europe and competing against top Euroleague teams in a series of exhibition games in five countries.

On Friday, the Clippers played Moscow’s Khimki team and won, 98-91, in a game that felt more like a romp than the final score indicated. The teams traded leads for the first five minutes, then the Clippers pulled ahead 24-14 with less than three minutes left in the first quarter. The game wasn’t close again until the final minutes. Shaun Livingston led the team with 19 points.

For many local fans, one highlight was watching the Clippers’ 7-foot center, Chris Kaman, seem dwarfed by Khimki’s 7-foot-5 Pavel Podkolzin, a Russian who was with the Dallas Mavericks the last two seasons.

“Kaman looks like a child versus Podkolzin,” Alexander Artyukh, 25, a financial analyst, said at halftime.

Kaman scored 17 points, and Podkolzin scored nine.

“Khimki played well, but the Los Angeles people were better,” Nikita Pleskonos, 15, said in English while waiting outside the stadium after the game in hope of getting autographs. “I think it’s a historical moment, and I’m proud because I saw it.”

Added Koba Khitalishvili, 14: “We’re proud because of Podkolzin.”

The autographs that the two boys wanted to get on a basketball they had with them were those of Elton Brand, Cassell and Livingston, whom the boys described as the Clippers’ best three.

Today, the Clippers play Moscow’s CSKA team, which won the Euroleague basketball championship last season.

Earlier in the week, the Clippers visited a Moscow hospital ward for children with cancer, signed autographs at a sports store and appeared at the NBA-sponsored library of a local orphanage. Together with players from the two Moscow teams, some of the Clippers also gave a basketball workshop for 80 Russian boys and girls.

During the hospital visit, Clippers forward Ryan Humphrey made a point of trying to use a couple of Russian words, particularly “poka,” an informal way of saying “goodbye.”

Humphrey explained: “Any time you go out of the country you at least want to learn something while you’re there.”

When Humphrey, Thomas and guard Quinton Ross walked into 12-year-old Yekaterina Kozhevnikova’s hospital room, her first question was, “What should I eat to be as big and tall as you?” “Milk,” came the reply.

“It’s amazing that they’re so tall. They said they drank milk and ate vegetables and fruit,” she said later.

Thomas and a 6-year-old named Igor Lezhnev seemed to hit it off. First, Thomas picked the boy up and swung him in the air, five feet off the ground, for a minute or so, as Igor shouted “It’s cool! It’s cool!” A few minutes later, they were at it again, this time Igor horizontal on Thomas’ shoulder as he raced up and down the hall, to the hilarity of children and adults alike, while the boy called out, “I’m flying, I’m flying.”

On Sunday, the Clippers’ first full day in Moscow, guard Cuttino Mobley signed autographs at a sporting goods store in the GUM department store on Red Square.

Several dozen fans were lined up when he began signing, photos of himself, which were available to be handed out, or any T-shirts, basketballs or notebooks the fans brought with them. About 100 fans showed up in a half an hour, many taking the opportunity to get their photo taken with him too.

“He’s a famous player,” explained Anton Chernyshev, 15. “It’s a very rare occasion that you have a chance like this.”

The last time an NBA team came to Moscow was in 1988, when the Atlanta Hawks played the Soviet national team, which won an Olympic gold medal later that year.

“Now the situation is a little different,” said Sergei Tarakanov, who played on that 1988 Olympic team and now is general manager for the Russian national team.

“Children in our country know more about NBA players than they do about players on our own teams. Of course they will be happy to come and see some NBA stars live,” Tarakanov said. “It will give another impetus to the growing popularity of basketball in Russia. The more contacts like this, the better.”

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david.holley@latimes.com