101 Greats of European Basketball

sign me, but it was impossible,” he said. “I was 26 years
old and I wasn’t allowed to play abroad until I was 34.”
In the FIBA Hall of Fame
When he returned home from Turkey, Golomeev
played two more years for Levski-Spartak and put an
end to his career in 1985, at 38 years old. After the
1987 EuroBasket in Greece, a farewell game for Atanas
Golomeev was played on June 21 between Bulgaria and
an all-European team with Drazen Petrovic and Stojan
Vrankovic (Yugoslavia), Nikos Galis and Panagiotis
Giannakis (Greece), Antonello Riva and Walter Magnifico
(Italy), Mickey Berkowitz and Doron Jamchi (Israel),
Richard Dacoury (France), Stanislav Kropilak (Czechoslovakia)
and Rik Smits (Netherlands). The coach was
Pavel Petera (Czechoslovakia) and Europe won 129-82.
It was the last game of the great Atanas Golomeev.
He remembers his great rivals, especially Kreso
Cosic who, aside from being tall, was smart and with
great court vision and great assists.
When FIBA, on occasion of the basketball centennial,
chose the 50 best players ever, it could not forget
about Golomeev. It was a recognition for 25 years of a
brilliant career that could have been even better if not
for political circumstances. Golomeev was a Bulgarian
club champion 12 times, 10 as a player and two as a
coach. From 1991 to 1993, he was president of the
Bulgarian federation. He was also a member of several
FIBA committees, but his passion eventually changed
from the “big ball” to the smaller one of golf.
Mihail-Misha Delev, a prestigious Bulgarian journalist,
together with Lilia Yankova and Hari Latifyan, wrote
two volumes on the history of Bulgarian basketball and
has this opinion about Golomeev:
“I cannot categorically say that Golomeev was the
best Bulgarian player ever, but with Ilia Mirchev, Viktor
Radev and Georgi Glouchkov, he was definitely among
the best four big men ever in Bulgaria. He could score
with impressive ease.”
101 greats of european basketball
Atanas Golomeev
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