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- Alexander
Gomelsky
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Alexander Gomelsky
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 Alexander
Gomelsky is the father of modern basketball in the Soviet Union. The
success of Soviet (now Russian) basketball in the international arena
is directly attributable to the coaching talents of this man.
Gomelsky coached four Soviet Olympic teams––1964, 1968, 1980,
1988––winning a silver medal in Tokyo at his first Olympiad, the gold
medal in his final assignment in Seoul, and a pair of bronze medals in
1968 and 1980. He was a Soviet assistant coach for the 1956 Olympic
Games. Had the Soviets not boycotted the 1984 Olympics, he would have
coached that year’s Olympic team.
Gomelsky’s teams won World Championships in 1967 and 1982, was
runner-up in 1978, and finished third in 1963 and 1970. They were also
victorious at eight European Championships––1959, 1961, 1963, 1965,
1967, 1969, 1979, 1981; and winners of 15 Soviet Union national titles.
The 5’5” Russian basketball mentor began coaching in 1945 at the age of
17, following two years as an All State player at Leningrad’s High
School #79. He was an All-State star three years running at the Coaches
College in Leningrad.
Gomelsky coached SKA Leningrad 1948-52, ASK Riga
1953-66, CSKA Moscow 1966-88, and the Sbornaya (the Soviet National
Team) 1958-60, 1962-70, and 1976-88. He also coached Spain’s Tenerife
1988-89, the European All-Star Team 1989-90, and Limoges CSP (France)
1990-91.
He is probably best remembered in the West as coach of a Soviet Olympic
basketball team that he did not coach. Gomelsky calls the 1972 Soviet
team "my boys," but the KGB (Russia's secret police), fearing that the
outspoken Jewish coach would defect to Israel, took away his visa,
preventing him from traveling to the Munich Games.
Nevertheless, it was Gomelsky's Central Army Sports Club (CSKA) team,
the 1972 Russian National Champions, that represented the Soviet Union
in Munich, under a different coach. The gold medal match-up that year
against the United States- that had never lost an Olympic basketball
game- ended in the most publicly controversial result in the history of
the quadrennial games.
When time ran out, stadium spectators and an
international television audience watched the U.S. team celebrate its
50, 49 gold medal victory. But, one of the floor referees claimed that
seconds were still left on the clock. The time clock was backed up
several ticks, and the Soviets were given the ball out of bounds.
However, they had no success, and the game ended a second time. Then,
once again, a floor referee made another judgment call, and again the
Soviets were handed the ball with several new seconds on the clock.
This extra life proved golden for the Russians. A length-of-the-court
"Hail Mary" pass was converted into the winning basket. Gomelsky calls
the moment the most exciting and most disappointing of his life.
Although he has been relieved of his duties on five occasions when his
international teams failed to win a gold medal, bringing home 'only'
silvers and bronzes, Gomelsky has always been recalled and enjoys great
popularity in and out of the former Soviet Union.
Gomelsky has authored ten books on basketball that have been published
in Russian and other international languages. He was elected to the
Basketball Hall of Fame in May 1995.
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