Career: Spartak St. Petersburg (Russia-Superleague, 1997-2000), CSKA Moscow (Russia-Superleague, 2000-03), Dynamo Moscow (Russia-Superleague, 2003-04), Aris Thessaloniki (Greece-ESAKE, 2004-05).

A pure product of the great basketball school of St. Petersburg, where he teamed up with Andrei Kirilenko, Nikolai Padius was considered, at one time, one of the biggest prospects in Russia… CSKA Moscow recruited him for this reason. Despite posting good numbers in the Superleague he never managed to shine in the Euroleague and was eventually relegated to the end of the bench…. The former junior and Under 20 national team member (14.0 ppg in the U20 European championship in 2000) eventually transferred to Dynamo without much more success… This season, he took his game to Greece and showed in the ESAKE league that the talent was still there : 10.1 points and a nice combination of shooting touch and driving abilities.