GENNADY VOLNOV - 101 Greats of European Basketball

Gennady
Volnov
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Europe’s
winningest
player
The history of European basketball
doesn’t have anyone quite like Gennady
Volnov. He played at six FIBA
EuroBaskets and won six gold medals!
He also won four Olympic medals and
two from the World Cup, giving him 12
trophies won in the three most important international
competitions. It’s true that Kresimir Cosic
of Yugoslavia had 14 medals in the same competitions,
but Volnov outdid him at the club level. While
Cosic was never a EuroLeague champ, Volnov won
continental titles with CSKA Moscow in 1961, 1963
and 1969.
Gennady was born in Moscow on November 28,
1939, and he passed away in Moscow on July 15,
2008. He was a versatile player and, as Sergei Belov
used to say, ahead of his time. At 2.01 meters tall,
Volnov played three positions: shooting guard, small
forward and power forward. His natural position was
close to the rim due to his physical features. He was a
great rebounder, but also shot well from long range.
Aside from his qualities as a player, he was a natural
leader and served as the captain for both CSKA and
the USSR national team for many years.
The career of Gennady Volnov – his friends called
him Genka – started in 1956 with Burevestnik, a
humble club from Moscow. In 1959, at 20 years old,
he moved on to CSKA Moscow along with Anatoly
Astakhov and Armenak Alachachan. That very same
year, he made his debut with the national team at
the EuroBasket in Istanbul. There he won his first
gold medal, even though, since he was a rookie, his
contribution was not prominent. In fact, Volnov averaged
3.8 points per game and he didn’t even take
the floor in the decisive games. The following year, he
took part in the 1960 Olympics in Rome and there he
saw a genius of the game. Watching American player
Oscar Robertson, a super-modern guard at the time,
opened for Volnov new perspectives on how to play.
He understood that basketball was not only about
shooting and physical strength, but also about imagination
and creativity, that the game could be fun
without the systems created by the coach.
I saw Volnov for the first time at the 1961 EuroBasket
in Belgrade, even though I must admit that I had
my eyes on Janis Krumins, the first giant of European
basketball. At 2.18 meters tall, Krumins looked like a
colossus and attracted eyes everywhere he went. In
Belgrade, with an average of 11.7 points, Volnov won
his second gold medal. He repeated that feat in Wroclaw
in 1963 (10.7 ppg.), Moscow 1965 (12.6 ppg.),
Helsinki 1967 (11.1 ppg.) and Naples 1969 (7.0 ppg.).
In between EuroBaskets he also shined at World
Cups in 1963 in Rio de Janeiro (bronze, 14.1 points
with a high of 20 against the USA) and Montevideo
1967 (gold, 11.1 ppg.). At the Olympics, he won four
medals and, together with Belov, he is the basketball
player with the most Olympic medals. In addition to
the silver in Rome he won another in Tokyo in 1964
(9.8 ppg.), in Mexico 1968 (7.4 ppg.) he took the
bronze, and the peak of his Olympic career was the
1972 gold in Munich (6.8 ppg.).
101 greats of european basketball
Gennady Volnov
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Vladimir Stankovic
Glorious comeback
After the 1969 EuroBasket in Naples, due to lack
of communication with coach Aleksandar Gomelskiy,
Volnov left the national team and at 30 years old he
practically put an end to his career because he didn’t
want to play for any team other than CSKA. He did
not play in the 1970 World Cup in Ljubljana, where
the USSR won the bronze medal, and he was not at
the 1971 EuroBasket in Germany either, even though
the coach there was Vladimir Kondrashin. However,
for the 1972 Olympics in Munich, Kondrashin realized
that a charismatic and experienced player like
Volnov could help the team. Gennady accepted and
wore the Soviet jersey again. He didn’t play much,
but Kondrashin wasn’t expecting double-doubles
from him either. He needed Volnov as a locker room
leader. Volnov obliged and even scored some points:
12 against Senegal and Poland, 11 against the Philippines,
6 against Germany and 2 against Italy. After
sitting out against Yugoslavia and Cuba, in the historic
final against the USA, he didn’t score, but his 4
fouls showed his fight on defense. The USSR won the
gold medal after the famous replaying of the last 3
seconds, on a basket by Alexander Belov. The 1972
Olympic silver medals are still in the vaults of the
Olympic Museum in Lausanne waiting for the American
players to pick them up.
After Munich, Volnov decided to put an end to
his brilliant career and started to teach chemistry
at a military academy. He played basketball with
the CSKA veterans and helped the young players by
showing them the tricks in his repertoire. He was a
very polite man, calm and never lost his temper when
opponents hit him hard, because that was the only
way to stop him.
384
385

EuroLeague champ three times
With 12 medals in the three most important international
competitions, 10 Soviet League titles and
three European crowns with CSKA, Volnov is one of
the winningest players in the history of European
basketball. His first EuroLeague title came in 1961
against ASK Riga, to break that Latvian team’s domination
after it won the first three editions of the competition,
somewhat unexpectedly, between 1958 and
1960. In the first game of the final, played in Riga, the
ASK squad of Gomelskiy lost 62-89! Volnov scored 18
points for CSKA. ASK won the second game in Moscow,
but just by 5 points (66-61). Volnov scored 13
points for CSKA, which won its first European title.
The second title arrived in 1963 after three games
against Real Madrid. The Spaniards won the first
game in Madrid 86-69 with 6 points from Volnov. In
the second game, CSKA won by the same 17 points,
91-74, as Volnov scored 8. The following day the third
game to decide the series was played. In that one, on
August 1, 1963, in front of 20,000 fans, CSKA won
99-80. Gennady Volnov scored 26 points and was the
hero of the game.
The third crown for CSKA and Volnov came in
Barcelona, on April 24, 1969 – against Real Madrid
again. CSKA won 103-99. It was a game full of drama
that featured two overtime periods. Belov, who was
a player/coach for CSKA, spent all 50 minutes on the
court. Center Vladimir Andreev played the game of a
lifetime (37 points, 13 rebounds) and Volnov had 12
points and 2 offensive rebounds in 37 minutes.
After Volnov’s death, Belov stated that Volnov
had not been properly appreciated at home. Belov
described Volnov as “the pioneer of modern Soviet
basketball.” Many others thought justice had not
been done when, in a major survey for the best
starting five ever in Soviet basketball, Volnov was not
selected.
One thing is sure, however. This born winner belongs
among the greats.
101 greats of european basketball
Gennady Volnov
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