101 Greats of European Basketball

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.
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