Pavel Ermolinskij


Pavel Ermolinskij is an Icelandic professional basketball player of Ukrainian descent, who plays for Úrvalsdeild karla club Valur and also is a member of the Icelandic national team. He has won the Icelandic championship with KR seven times, in 2011 and 2014-2019. He played in the Spanish Liga ACB for several seasons, winning the Spanish King's Cup in 2005.

Early life

Pavel was born in Kiev in the Soviet Union to Soviet national basketball team player Alexander Ermolinskij. He emigrated to Iceland with his family in 1992, at the age of 5, when his father signed with Skallagrímur in Borgarnes.

Career

Pavel first appeared in a Úrvalsdeild karla game on 6 March 1998, at the age of only 11, when his father and head coach of Körfuknattleiksfélag ÍA, Alexander Ermolinskij, selected him for the 10-man squad against Njarðvík. At the time there were no rules regarding minimum age of players in the league.
His next taste of the senior team was with Skallagrímur during the 2001–02 season when he appeared in 15 games, averaging 1.8 points per game.
Pavel led the Úrvalsdeild karla in assists during the 2017-2018 season. On April 28, 2018, he won his sixth Icelandic championship after KR defeated Tindastóll in the Úrvalsdeild finals. It was the eighteenth straight playoffs series he won in the Úrvalsdeild playoffs. After sitting out the first three games of the 2018–2019 season, Pavel resumed training with KR in end of October. On 4 May 2019 he won his 7th national championship after KR beat ÍR in the Úrvalsdeild finals 3-2.
On 13 August 2019, Pavel signed a 2-year contract with KR's Reykjavík rivals Valur. He started the season strong, with big fourth quarter performances in victories against Fjölnir and Þór Þorlákshöfn. On 25 October, he scored the game winning three pointer with 5 seconds left in an overtime victory against Tindastóll. On 5 January 2020, Pavel was 1 assist shy of the Úrvalsdeild record when he handed out 17 assists in a victory against Fjölnir.

Icelandic national team

Pavel has played with the Icelandic national basketball team since 2004 and participated in EuroBasket 2015 and EuroBasket 2017.

Honours

Iceland

Club

Club