OLEKSANDR VOLKOV - 101 Greats of European Basketball
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Oleksandr<br />
Volkov<br />
379
The symbol<br />
<strong>of</strong> Ukrainian<br />
basketball<br />
Oleksandr Volkov was born in Omsk,<br />
in present-day Russia, on March 29,<br />
1964, but he started playing in Kiev,<br />
the capital <strong>of</strong> Ukraine, and after<br />
the breakup <strong>of</strong> the USSR he chose<br />
Ukraine as his home country.<br />
In Ukrainian, his name is spelled with an “o” at the<br />
beginning – Oleksandr – but in many documents and<br />
sources he is referred to as Aleksandr, Aleksander, Alexander<br />
or Aleksandar. However, everybody knows him<br />
by the nickname Sasha. With his surname, there are no<br />
problems or different versions. The root <strong>of</strong> the word in<br />
Russian and several Slavic languages is “volk”, which<br />
translates into “wolf”. In some ways, Volkov was indeed<br />
a wolf around the basket: tall, proud, strong, aggressive<br />
and always with a hunger ... for a win.<br />
Pioneer in the NBA<br />
Sasha Volkov was one <strong>of</strong> the few <strong>European</strong> players<br />
who, at the end <strong>of</strong> the 1980s, opened a new page in the<br />
NBA and, in some ways, in the history <strong>of</strong> basketball in<br />
general. When Bulgarian Georgi Glouchkov – the first<br />
<strong>European</strong> ever in the NBA – Spaniard Fernando Martin,<br />
Lithuanian Sarunas Marciulionis, Croatian Drazen Petrovic,<br />
and Serbians Vlade Divac and Zarko Paspalj landed<br />
in the NBA, they had to overcome many obstacles, most<br />
<strong>of</strong> all a total lack <strong>of</strong> trust from American head coaches.<br />
Until then, the NBA had just two <strong>European</strong> players<br />
with important roles, but both had been to American<br />
colleges: Detlef Schrempf <strong>of</strong> Germany and Rik Smits<br />
<strong>of</strong> the Netherlands. Thanks to these players the NBA<br />
doors are today open to many talented players.<br />
Before making history in the NBA, Volkov earned<br />
prestige and respect in Europe. To the international<br />
eyes, he made his national team debut at the second<br />
FIBA U19 <strong>Basketball</strong> World Cup in 1983 in Palma de Mallorca,<br />
Spain. The USSR lost the title game to the United<br />
States 82-78. Volkov scored 4 points in that final, while<br />
his tournament average was 6.1 points. Two years later,<br />
Volkov made his senior national team debut at the 1985<br />
EuroBasket in Stuttgart, Germany. He was part <strong>of</strong> a<br />
great USSR team with Arvydas Sabonis, Valdis Valters,<br />
Marciulionis, Valeri Tikhonenko, Rimas Kurtinaitis, Aleksandar<br />
Belostenny, Sergejus Jovaisa, Vladimir Tkatchenko,<br />
Sergei Tarakanov and Andrey Lopatov. Almost<br />
the same team would triumph at the 1988 Olympics in<br />
Seoul three years later. Volkov’s average at EuroBasket<br />
in 1985 was 7.8 points, well short <strong>of</strong> the 20 per game by<br />
Sabonis, 16.4 by Valters or 15.5 by Kurtinaitis, but he<br />
was a key part <strong>of</strong> a group that was crowned <strong>European</strong><br />
champion. Indeed, in beating Czechoslovakia 120-89 in<br />
the final, Volkov played 29 minutes, scored 18 points<br />
and grabbed 12 rebounds. Only three players scored<br />
more than him: Valters (27), Kurtinaitis (24) and Sabonis<br />
(20 plus 15 boards). But Volkov, at age 21, was<br />
already an important player on the team, an ideal power<br />
forward to cover the space between the backcourt<br />
players and the towering Sabonis.<br />
Those days were the start <strong>of</strong> great friendships among<br />
players <strong>of</strong> several nationalities <strong>of</strong> the former USSR. The<br />
team was formed by Lithuanians, Russians, Ukrainians<br />
and Latvians who, not much later, would play for their<br />
Oleksandr Volkov<br />
<strong>101</strong> greats <strong>of</strong> european basketball<br />
V
Vladimir Stankovic<br />
own countries. But the disintegration <strong>of</strong> a former country<br />
could not destroy the bond among those players, forged<br />
on the court while defending the same jersey.<br />
One year later, with almost the same team at the<br />
1986 World Cup in Spain, the USSR lost the title game<br />
87-85 to the United States, led by Kenny Smith and<br />
David Robinson, with 23 points each. In 30 minutes,<br />
Volkov scored 8 points, a little below his average in the<br />
tourney (11.2). That same year, Volkov was picked in the<br />
NBA draft’s sixth round by the Atlanta Hawks. A year<br />
later, at the 1987 EuroBasket in Athens, Volkov and the<br />
USSR lost the title to Greece 103-<strong>101</strong> in overtime, after<br />
having tied 89-89 at the end <strong>of</strong> regulation time.<br />
Olympic champion<br />
Before going to the NBA, Volkov and his teammates<br />
would reach the peak <strong>of</strong> their careers at the 1988 Olympics<br />
in Seoul. After losing the first game <strong>of</strong> the group<br />
stage to Yugoslavia, the USSR team won all its remaining<br />
games. In the semifinals, they defeated the United<br />
States 82-76, and in the gold-medal game, the victim<br />
was Yugoslavia by the score <strong>of</strong> 76-63. In 26 minutes,<br />
Volkov scored 7 points and pulled down 3 boards.<br />
From 1981 to 1986, Volkov played with Budivelnyk<br />
Kiev and from 1986 to 1988 he was part <strong>of</strong> the CSKA<br />
Moscow team. For the 1988-89 season, he was back<br />
to Budivelnyk. Right before his trip to America, Volkov<br />
played the 1989 EuroBasket in Zagreb and completed<br />
his medal collection. In addition to the previous gold<br />
and silver medals, he took a bronze after the USSR’s<br />
surprising loss to Greece in the semis, 81-80. Volkov’s<br />
scoring average was 17.2 points in the tournament.<br />
It was also the last tournament for the USSR with the<br />
Lithuanian players like Sabonis, Marciulionis and Valdemaras<br />
Chomicius.<br />
Volkov’s NBA debut for Atlanta took place on November<br />
3, 1989, in a game won by Indiana, 126-103. It<br />
was just a symbolic debut because Volkov played only<br />
1 minute and couldn’t contribute anything. Officially,<br />
however, his NBA adventure started that day. It was<br />
a game full <strong>of</strong> stars. On Indiana’s side, we could find<br />
Reggie Miller (36 points), Schrempf and Vern Fleming,<br />
while Atlanta had Dominique Wilkins, Moses Malone<br />
and Doc Rivers. In three years in the NBA, Volkov played<br />
149 games with an average <strong>of</strong> 14.1 minutes, 6.8 points<br />
and 2.6 rebounds. I think that, by today’s standards, he<br />
would probably double those figures.<br />
Already as an NBA player, Volkov attended the 1990<br />
World Cup in Buenos Aires and he won his second silver<br />
medal as the USSR was defeated by Yugoslavia in the<br />
final 92-75. With 15 points, Volkov was his team’s best<br />
scorer, along with Gundars Vetra. On the other side,<br />
there was the Yugoslav “Dream Team” with Drazen<br />
Petrovic, Vlade Divac, Toni Kukoc, Zarko Paspalj, Zoran<br />
Savic, Velimir Perasovic, Jure Zdovc, Zeljko Obradovic<br />
and Arijan Komazec.<br />
Volkov’s last great international competition was<br />
the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona. He played for the<br />
CIS, a team formed by players from the former Soviet<br />
republics except for the Baltic countries. One <strong>of</strong> those<br />
Baltic countries, Lithuania, won the bronze medal. The<br />
CIS lost out on a medal by losing to Croatia in the semifinals<br />
75-74 in a game that Volkov is probably not fond<br />
<strong>of</strong> since he missed two free throws down the stretch.<br />
Back to Europe<br />
After three years in the NBA, but with several serious<br />
injuries along the way, Volkov returned to Europe in<br />
1992. His first stop was Italy with Reggio Calabria. In 27<br />
Italian League games, he averaged 19.3 points. He then<br />
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381
had <strong>of</strong>fers from FC Barcelona and Panathinaikos and he<br />
chose the Greek team, with whom he reached the 1994<br />
EuroLeague Final Four in Tel Aviv. He played a great season,<br />
with 18.2 points and 8.1 rebounds in Europe, as<br />
well as 14.6 points per game in the Greek League.<br />
Despite his two great performances at the Final Four<br />
– 32 points against Olympiacos in the semifinals and 29<br />
against Barcelona in the game for third place – Panathinaikos<br />
could only finish third. I think that was the best<br />
Volkov performance I ever saw live. The following year<br />
he went to archrival Olympiacos, with EuroLeague averages<br />
<strong>of</strong> 12.3 points, 6.5 rebounds and 2.0 assists, while<br />
he put up 15.8 points per game in the Greek League.<br />
Back problems forced him to retire at age 31, even<br />
though he would be back for a brief period <strong>of</strong> time a little<br />
later. In the preliminary round for the 1999 EuroBasket<br />
in France, he decided to help Ukraine. He was back<br />
on the court at age 35, and he did pretty well. Against<br />
Spain, he had 14 points and 8 boards, against Israel 8<br />
plus 8, and against England 13 plus 7. But Ukraine didn’t<br />
manage to qualify.<br />
In the year 2000, Volkov founded a new club, BC<br />
Kyiv, where he played until 2002, when he retired for<br />
good. Since then he has become a politician. He was<br />
the minister <strong>of</strong> sports in his country, was elected several<br />
times to the Ukrainian parliament, and served as<br />
president <strong>of</strong> the national basketball federation. For the<br />
2011 EuroBasket in Lithuania, Volkov signed his former<br />
coach in Atlanta, Mike Fratello, as the national team<br />
coach for Ukraine. With Fratello still on the bench at the<br />
2013 EuroBasket in Slovenia, Ukraine finished sixth,<br />
ahead <strong>of</strong> teams like Serbia, Italy and Greece, and was<br />
able to qualify to the World Cup <strong>of</strong> 2014 in Spain – a first<br />
for the country.<br />
Sasha Volkov, the symbol <strong>of</strong> Ukraine. He was a great<br />
player who continued to do great things for his country<br />
in basketball.<br />
Oleksandr Volkov<br />
<strong>101</strong> greats <strong>of</strong> european basketball<br />
V