101 Greats of European Basketball

The “three-second”
man
There are great players and great careers
marked by a single basket, a single game,
a single detail. Sometimes that’s unfair,
but it’s just inevitable. A man who belongs
to this club of the world elite is Alexander
“Sasha” Belov, the late Russian
player who died on October 3, 1978, at age 27. That’s
too short for a single life, but more than enough to
leave a mark on basketball.
His basket against the USA in the Munich Olympics
title game in 1972, which the Soviet Union won 51-50,
is part of the history of the Olympic Games and this
sport. It’s an immortal play, unique in the last century, a
basket that was worth a gold medal under strange circumstances:
the repetition of a play; the famous three
fingers in the air by FIBA secretary general William
Jones, meaning that the last three seconds had to be
repeated; the anger of the Americans who later refused
to accept the silver medals.
Born on November 9, 1951, in Leningrad (currently
St. Petersburg), Sasha Belov started playing basketball
in his native city. He stepped onto the international
stage at age 17, when he played in the European junior
championships in Vigo, Spain in 1968. His average of 7
points didn’t hint at a future star, but he won his first gold
medal. In the final, the USSR defeated a powerful Yugoslavia
with Slavnic, Jelovac and Simonovic by 82-73. A
year later, he was already playing with the senior team
at EuroBasket in Italy. He also had discreet numbers
(4 points) but he was not yet 18 years old. In 1970, he
played another junior European junior championships,
this time in Athens, and he won a new gold medal. His
average rose to 8.5 points, but his best moments were
yet to come. Before that, he lost his first final at club
level. His team, Spartak, had reached the Saporta Cup
final, but after two games, Simmenthal Milan was the
better of the two. Belov scored 16 in his team’s home
win, 66-56, but the Italians won the second game by
71-52 despite his 14 points.
Unforgettable Munich
National team coach Vladimir Kondrashin, his coach
also in Spartak, trusted Belov. He was a modern forward
despite standing just 2.01 meters. He had long
hands, broad shoulders and great rebounding skills.
He was a nightmare for players guarding him. He was
fast and agile, had good technique, and scored with
ease. In Munich, on a star-filled team (Sergei Belov,
Modestas Paulauskas, Anatoli Polivoda...) he was the
best scorer with 14.4 points per game. Truth be told,
however, that high average was due to his 37 points
against Puerto Rico (100-87). Against Senegal, Yugoslavia
and Cuba he scored 14 points each game, but
his best moment was in the big final against the United
States. He scored 8 points and pulled 8 rebounds,
but his last basket made history. Curiously enough,
it was a basket that made him as popular in the USA
as in the USSR. Some fan clubs emerged and a young
American woman traveled to Leningrad to ask Belov
to marry her. But the love of his life was Aleksandra
Ovchinikova.
At the Saporta Cup final in 1973 in Thessaloniki,
Spartak defeated Jugoplastika by 77-62 as Belov was
the MVP with 18 points. Two years later, in Nantes, he
101 greats of european basketball
Alexander Belov
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