18.02.202327.05.2017

The legendary USSR champion, Olympic champion, one of the 50 best players in history and the first Soviet basketball player to break through the window in the United States, Alexander Volkov, turned 55 on March 29.

Played football and hockey

- Alexander, have you dreamed of playing basketball since childhood?

My father was a good basketball player and always promised to take me to the section at Children's Sports School No. 1 in Chernigov. But somehow I didn’t get around to it. Mom also played basketball. And I, like all the boys at that time, played football from morning to evening in the summer and hockey in the winter. I loved these sports very much, and I only watched basketball on TV. In Chernigov, although it was considered popular, it was not a yard sport.

- And how did you end up in the basketball section?

I was 9 years old, and the boys and I were playing football on the playground near the house. While we were running, a woman stopped nearby, watched what was happening for a long time, and then came up to me and introduced herself: “Alla Georgievna Vergum. I am a basketball coach.”

It turned out that she lived in a neighboring house. She asked how old I was and took my parents’ phone number. I called in the evening, and the next day my mother took me to Youth Sports School No. 1. It was 3rd grade, on September 9th I started playing basketball.

- Tell us about Alla Georgievna.

She had just graduated from the Kyiv Institute of Physical Education. I was her first recruit. A very cozy school, everything feels like home. Alla Georgievna always tried to ensure that we behaved adequately when traveling, listened, greeted each other and were polite. She took such little things very seriously.

She also had a desire and creativity that was unusual for coaches. One day, trying to teach us how to stand well legs bent, she came up with the idea of sawing off hockey sticks, and we played with them tennis ball. I had to run on bent legs all the time.

- Was it difficult with equipment and uniforms then?

The uniform was given to us at the Youth Sports School. And we bought the sneakers and socks ourselves. All the boys then dreamed of having experimental sneakers. They were made in Moscow under license from Converse All Star. They were white, beautiful, soft, with thick soles.

Offensive decision of the judges

- You couldn’t even think then that one day your throw would help win the USSR Championship?

Every basketball player dreams of this. A decisive shot from afar, with a good reward on the line. And it was so difficult to win the USSR championship, such teams and such people played there! The competition is outrageous. Thanks to fate and the Lord, such a moment happened for me. A dramatic game, the Kiev “Stroitel” won, but the Lithuanian “Zalgiris” caught up with us. Game time was running out, and at the last second I had to throw. And I hit the ring.

- But the judges did not immediately count this throw...

We played in Kaunas. The Zalgiris athletes went to the locker room and took off their sneakers, they thought they had lost. But the public began to go wild. Maybe the judges were afraid to take responsibility for the result and canceled my throw. We had to play an extra five minutes and we lost it.

Deciding that this was unfair, we did not stay for the third, decisive game and left. But a serious scandal broke out across the country. It was clearly visible on TV: when the ball flew out of my hands, there was still one second left on the timer. Fans bombarded the sports committee with complaints. He had to get ready in Moscow, watch the video, and in the end the ball was counted. We became champions of the USSR!

Paid $100,000 compensation

- You are the first Soviet player to go to the NBA to play for Atlanta. How was it?

Not easy. The most difficult thing is to get used to the so-called zeroing. All the regalia and titles, the Olympic championship, the European championship, the title of the best player of the Union, getting into the symbolic teams of the world and Europe were of no interest to anyone. We had to start from scratch.

Plus the difference in mentality. In the USSR, for the team, any defeat was perceived as a tragedy and was remembered for a long time. And in the NBA, Atlanta was considered a good average team, but to have large number lost matches were normal. I felt out of place.

- Were you easily released to the USA?

They released me easily, but I had to pay 100 thousand dollars to the sports committee in order to be released without any problems. I didn’t have to pay; it wasn’t regulated.

- Why Atlanta?

I was drafted by the Atlanta Hawks and I wouldn't have had any other choice. They could only exchange me. In 1989 a contract was signed. They brought a T-shirt with my name and documents. Although they were chosen back in 1986. But in order to play in the USA, in 1986 I would have had to travel to some Western country and escape there. Just like in the movies. Under the Union, they didn’t want to let us go - they were preparing us for the 1988 Olympics.

- How much did you earn in the USA?

The first three-year contract is approximately $2 million, including taxes. Imagine, 1989, it’s unclear whether the Soviet Union will collapse, but I was officially paid that kind of money! Although the athletes took it calmly. Our generation was not inclined towards business and investment. We just played basketball, money appeared - we spent it. They helped relatives and friends. I purchased uniforms and sent them to Ukraine.

Sabonis mixed up the cards

- Let's return to the USSR national team and the 1988 Olympics. Did you return from there as champions?

Although the Yugoslavs were considered the strongest at that time, we were faced with an unsolvable problem - the United States. We were a well-played team, and yes, at some pre-Olympic tournament we lost to Yugoslavia and twice to the Atlanta Hawks... But we approached the trip to the Olympics in Seoul with the understanding that we could cope with everyone. And only the Americans remained a problem.

- Why?

They prepared the team for victory. Young stars were not allowed to turn professional. Great players like David Robinson played there. We needed to change something and play differently.

And then our coach Alexander Gomelsky came up with the idea of starting me as number five, Valera Tikhonenko as number four, and with a small squad we created problems for European teams unaccustomed to such basketball. I covered all the centers, and in attack the team gained a huge advantage due to mobility. But this trick won’t work with the Americans. How to deal with their dominance?

- Before the trip, Arvydas Sabonis returned to the team after a ruptured Achilles tendon...

Sabonis did not have time to recover. Three days before the trip to the Olympics, we learn that Gomelsky persuaded him to go with us. It turned out that a person who had never trained with the team was added to the team that had been preparing since the spring.

- And how did this affect the game?

We come to the Olympics with the idea of fighting for medals. Then Sabonis joined us, and it seemed like we became even stronger. We played the first game in the group with the Yugoslavs, they completely destroyed us. Sabonis was added, the game changed, we don’t feel anything. But from game to game we played well. We beat the Brazilians in the quarterfinals in a tough game. We reached the semifinals against the Americans, beat them and realized that no Yugoslavs could stop us.

- So how did you manage to get past the Americans?

Gomelsky is a very good psychologist, he constantly convinced us that we would win the Olympics. He also found something atypical for Soviet basketball. I gathered everyone in the video room to watch the Canada - USA game. The only match where the Americans barely won. Otherwise they won by 20, 30, 40 points.

We looked and began to think about how to break their pressure. He was going to make it our little players. His option seemed dangerous: the USA had fast players who were accustomed to such tactics. On the contrary, I suggested breaking the pressure with me, Sabonis and Sock. Gomelsky agreed, and we did it. Now this combination is taught in American colleges and is called the breakdown of the pressing of Alexander Yakovlevich Gomelsky.

- Did you celebrate your victory loudly?

Celebrated as expected! For the entire Olympic village!

- What prize money did you receive?

4 thousand dollars and 10 thousand rubles. Mikhail Gorbachev congratulated me, but I didn’t go. Back then, no one really needed congratulations. We sought to leave our mark on history.

- What advice do you give to young players?

Michael Jordan was once asked what is the most important thing in basketball? He answered: love for basketball, and everything else comes from it. If there is love, then it will give desire, strength, and patience.

On topic

- And not about sports. You are a big fan of fishing, tell us about it.

Adore!. I fish right from home. I have it standing on a pond, as they say, an idiot’s dream has come true (laughs). But you see, there is one problem. As I grew older, I began to feel sorry for the fish. He started to let her go. A house on the water doesn't give you the drive that you get when you go fishing only on weekends.

- What is the biggest catch?

In Alaska I caught a halibut weighing about 50 kg.

- What are you doing now?

I help the Ukrainian Basketball Federation and clubs with children’s basketball if they ask. I work in the governing bodies of European basketball.

- What is Alexander Volkov dreaming of now?

My dreams are simple. I realized my plans for sports. At 55 years old, I want stability and tranquility. I would like peace and tranquility to finally come to Ukraine. I wish my friends and family health. Sometimes I catch myself thinking: I am a happy person, and God grant that it always stays that way.

Help "KP"

He began his sports career in the Kiev "Stroitel". With his help, the team won the only USSR championship in the history of the club.

Since 1989, he spent three seasons with the Atlanta Hawks (USA). Then he played in Calabria (Italy), Panathinaikos and Olympiacos (Greece). He completed his sports career at BC "Kyiv".

In 1991, Alexander Volkov was included in the list of the 50 greatest players in FIBA history. Among his titles gold medal Olympic Games in Seoul 1988 as part of the USSR national team, as well as two silver medals at the world championship in 1986 in Spain and 1990 in Argentina. In 1985 he became the European champion, and in 1987 and 1989 he won silver and bronze at the continental championship.

He is a former Minister of Sports of Ukraine and a deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of the VI and VII convocations. Since July 2007, he has served as Chairman of the Ukrainian Basketball Federation.

Aleksandr Volkov Career: Basketball player
Birth: Russia" Omsk region" Omsk, 29.3.1964
Alexander Volkov - Soviet and Ukrainian athlete, basketball player, Honored Master of Sports of the USSR. Born on March 29, 1964. Alexander Volkov is one of the first Soviet basketball players to enter the NBA. Achievements of Alexander Volkov: Olympic champion 1988. Silver medalist of the World Basketball Championship: 1986, 1990 European Champion: 1985. Silver medalist of the European Championship: 1987 Bronze medalist of the European Championship: 1989 USSR Champion 1988, 1989 Awarded the Order of Friendship (Russia, 2006) Awarded the Order of III degree merit (2011).

Born on March 29, 1964 in Omsk. Father Volkov Anatoly Alexandrovich. Volkova's mother Valentina Yakovlevna. Akhmetov's wife Alla Restyamovna. Daughters: Anastasia, Alexandra.

Sasha, who was born in an ordinary Omsk maternity hospital on Maslennikova Street, had average anthropometric data: with a height of 53 centimeters, he weighed 3 kilograms 900 grams. Years will pass before the world's leading sports publications will call him Red Gulliver, the Hawk from Lviv Square, the Italian Express. In the meantime, it would be a huge stretch to call him a candidate for future giants.

A few months after the birth of their son, the Volkov family moved to Chernigov. Sasha's parents were athletic people; They had a special passion for basketball, thanks to which they met back in 1960. At that time, they worked at the Omsk machine-building plant Polet, which in the secret annals of the KGB was listed as numbered and was actually an aviation plant. The defense industry did not have its own gym, and the basketball players went to train at the engine builders. There were countless sections, and there was only one gym, as a result of which the men's and women's teams trained together. This is how fate came together for the future parents of the future champion, who got married a year later.

The Volkovs' firstborn grew up as a bully. Since his dominant image was unconditionally recognized by all his comrades, the parents called their son nothing other than the chieftain of the gnomes. This was the first honorary title in the life of 5-year-old Shurka.

As we know, people are not born brave. Therefore, Anatoly Alexandrovich cultivated the strength of spirit in the boy from childhood. In the evenings, the doorway in the kitchen turned into a hockey goal, and Sasha into a goalkeeper. And although the puck was plastic, it hit, according to the young goalkeeper’s recollections, extremely well, especially when it hit the face. But dad didn’t allow me to pull on the mask. He convinced Sasha that you can’t find courage on the road and you can’t exchange it for a knife in the yard. His brother also agreed with Anatoly Alexandrovich. On weekends, he would arrange fist fights for his nephew with the neighborhood boys. Moreover, he selected not even the slightest weak.

Basketball entered Sasha’s existence only in the 3rd grade. Until the age of 7, the object of his affections were boxing gloves, then he raved about hockey and stayed up late at the TV, watching the game of the legendary trio of Mikhailov Petrov Kharlamov. Gullivers' game was broadcast infrequently in those years. Therefore, the portraits of black NBA stars, which were sometimes published by sports publications, evoked a special inner awe. The father did not push his son to make a selection in favor of this or that sport, but basketball ball He gave it for any incident.

Did Sasha take his first steps towards basketball Olympus during basketball training under the guidance of Alla Vergun at the Chernigov Children and Youth Sports School? 1 (1973-1980), continued his path at the Kiev City Sports Boarding School. Since 1981, Volkov became a player of the Kyiv Builder, and after another 2 years he won his first medals - bronze in the USSR Championship and silver at the World Youth Championship.

On the eve of the 1985 European Championship, Alexander Gomelsky was replaced as head coach of the country's first team by Vladimir Obukhov. The testing of the Obukhov team took place in Spain.

The match with the Spaniards started as usual: with two Gullivers Sabonis and Tkachenko, who were supplied with balls by Khomichius, Kurtinaitis and Tarakanov. But the five that brought fear to Europe behaved too academically. There would be some adjustments to be made here, but Gomelsky’s experience was not enough for Obukhov. The moment came when it was practically impossible to change the course of the match; the gap in the score during the match occasionally reached 30 points.

The old-timers, in practice, in the form of an ultimatum, demanded a change in tactics: instead of a second center, the attack should have been aided by a high-speed striker, who, according to the leaders, was the young Volkov. But Obukhov only gave in half. So, in the first match of the next commercial tournament against the Czechs, Andrei Lopatov entered the court in the starting five. And there would have been no happiness, but the misadventure helped in one of the first attacks. Lopatov broke his finger. Here, like it or not, it was Sasha’s turn. Obukhov released Volkov onto the platform and froze. The newcomer tightly shut down Krapilyak, the Czechs’ best striker, and also scored 20 points. Volkov started the next game in the starting five and never dropped out of it again in his life.

The team began the European Championship in Karlsruhe, where teams from Yugoslavia, Spain, France, Poland and Romania played. The French and Romanian bastions were taken little blood 118:103 and 100:85 respectively. Now, in order to assert themselves, the Yugoslav team, in which Drazan Petrovich was beginning to shine, had to win. This match, to some extent, became a turning point in Volkov’s fate. In one of the rebounds, while reaching for the ball, he accidentally knocked out Nakich’s front teeth. And the Yugoslavs wavered. We eased the pressure a little, changed the distance a little. And they also lost a little, only 8 points, but they lost.

Then, one after another, the teams of Poland, Bulgaria, Italy and in the final of Czechoslovakia were defeated. An important detail: in this place, in Stuttgart, Alexander Volkov became not only the European champion, but for the first time in his life he entered the symbolic team of the continent. Shaking his hand at Sheremetyevo-1, Gomelsky said: Well done. Although I obviously wouldn’t risk identifying you...

The Builder spent the 1985 and 1986 seasons neither shaky nor shaky, and who knows how Alexander’s future fate would have turned out, but then he was suddenly invited for a cup of tea by the then coach of Kyiv SKA Zurab Khromayev (today he is in charge of the entire Ukrainian basketball industry). Ironically, Khromaev lived in the same building as Alexander’s wife Alla.

Khromayev has already wooed Sasha into his team more than once, but if earlier the conversation was with a student, now with a pre-conscript. At that end of the day, as the main argument, Sasha was presented with heavy artillery in the person of the head coach of the national team and CSKA, Alexander Yakovlevich Gomelsky. But the key basketball general behaved with amazing modesty, talked more and more about the weather, and had his own views on the striker. And a week later, CSKA coach Selikhov called Volkov. Get ready, Yuri Gennadievich did not order, but asked, you are going to serve the Motherland. It was stupid to hide.

Within just a couple of weeks, the strong-willed newcomer became the undisputed leader of the team. And the best in CSKA most often became the best in the country. Most often, Volkov once and forever turned this into an axiom. It was in CSKA that he played the final of the USSR championship for the first time with Zalgiris. Sasha remembers how the generals pumped them up in 1987: the armed forces should not be squandered by dissidents. But she lost, and Sasha had to wait the whole year for her first allied gold medal; it happened in 1988.

The Soviet basketball team flew to the 88 Olympics in Seoul for victory. And despite the failure already in the opening match with the Yugoslavs, the number four best teams got through. The Americans were already waiting in the semifinals, who throughout the Olympic tournament with enviable consistency crushed their opponents with a gap of 3040 points.

The Americans were waiting for us with some anticipation. For 16 years, more than one generation of black Atlantans dreamed of paying our team a favor: everyone remembers how in Munich, 3 seconds before the end of the final match, Edeshko’s golden pass across the entire court and Belov’s throw put the founders of basketball into a trance. In Montreal, we didn’t make it to the face-to-face meeting, and after that big politics intervened in the Olympic movement.

The revenge was handed to the best national collegiate team in US history to ever play in a FIBA tournament. American leaders Danny Manning and David Robinson deliberately delayed signing multimillion-dollar contracts in the NBA in order to get Olympic gold. They were assisted under the shield by the unsurpassed JR Reed. This trio, having dashed the hopes of all competitors under the ring, hoped to rule the roost in the semi-finals. But Sabonis and Volkov stood in their way. Arvydas made 13 rebounds, and Volkov easily ate the legendary Manning, not allowing him to score a single point throughout the match.

The final match of the USSR Yugoslavia Olympics was broadcast by all the leading television companies in the world. Those who believed that the Yugoslavs entered the game demoralized by the Soviet semi-final were wrong; they did not throw out the white flag one step away from the highest step of the podium. Yugi took the lead from the first seconds of the match: 6:0, 20:10, 24:12... And perhaps the Yugoslavs were already internally trying on gold medals, but then Sabonis caught the game. Over the next 4 minutes, the USSR team scores 9 points, the Yugoslavs score none. Their superiority is melting away before our eyes, together with their hopes, which are completely destroyed by Drazan Petrovic, who was the only one who entered the empty ring and did not score a slam-dunk. 76:63. This is Victoria. Alexander Volkov is an Olympic champion!

Second time champion Soviet Union Volkov became in 1989, when the Builder defeated Zhal-giris in a historical confrontation. The fate of the gold medals was decided in the first return match, when in Kaunas Volkov's winning throw tipped the scales in favor of the Kiev team less than one tenth of a second before the end of the match. But the referees wavered: the main referee of the match, Mikhail Grigoriev, canceled the previously counted goal. The Kyivians lost the overtime, and they flatly refused the third game and flew to Kyiv somewhere because there should be a boundary line for the arbitrariness of the referees!

It must, they decided in Moscow. After carefully watching the video of the match, the USSR Basketball Federation and the State Sports Committee Board decided unanimously: Volkov threw before the siren. And if so, Kyiv should be the first!

Obviously, Volkov’s further sports fate was decided in friendly match with the great Atlanta Hawks. Tour American professionals, who won in Tbilisi and Vilnius, ended in Moscow, where, of course, they were given the final blow. And with the Luzhniki stands crowded, Sasha Volkov created the eighth wonder of the world without difficulty, as in training, scoring 37 points in 40 minutes of the match. Fantastic! It’s not known for certain, of course, but maybe, right at that second, Ted Turner put aside a suitcase tightly stuffed with green bills to buy a successful Russian.

True, the boss of Atlanta will use it only after a year and a half. Already the third entertainment in the NBA against the Boston Celtic became the first significant victory for Sasha. He played more than a third of the match against Larry Bird himself and scored his first two points. After this meeting, Fratello understood: the Russian perfectly grasps his strategy, can implement the setup for the match and enjoys the respect of the judges. Since then, Sasha has never spent less than 15 minutes on the court in a single match, scored 56 points per game for the team, and at the end of the season became the best in shots from behind the 6-meter line.

The moment came when Fratello shook his hand: You are an NBA player and worth significantly more than the two hundred thousand dollars that Turner paid the Soviets for you. But it’s only smooth on paper. Sasha finished his first period in the NBA with deep cracks in his hands, with injections and enthusiasm. The doctors warned: The injury is serious: a cast is needed, rest is needed. Volkov shrugged it off and went as part of the USSR national team to Argentina for an important crown. He received silver medals along with fifty painkilling injections, on which he lasted the entire tournament. It’s clear that the holiday didn’t work out. Upon returning to Atlanta, Volkov could not even lift a cup of tea with his hands. When greeting, he hid his hand behind his back; any touch to it would reverberate in his head like a sheaf of sparks.

I had to lie down on the operating table. They cut out cartilage from his groin and inserted his hands into the crack, tightening them with a special system. It’s not time to think about basketball about a wheelchair: the long-suffering hand was not a show for the faint of heart. But after 10 days the hand came to life. And everything would be fine, but then my legs gave out

Only a year later Sasha timidly crossed the threshold of the club. Half the players and the coach were new. And this meant that for the second time he became a newcomer in Atlanta, who was unlikely to have a location in the sun. But here the Hawks leader, the huge Dominique Wilkins, was seriously injured. This was an opportunity. And Volkov, who had not played for more than a year, took a risk. The eyes of the player and coach met only for a moment. They trusted each other. Volkov entered the game. I entered as if there had never been a year-long break. And the attack music began. No, Volkov did not become first violin. He became an orchestra, voicing all the roles. Rebound, pass, shot, block, it felt like two teams were already playing for Atlanta. Statistically, he became the best. In this meeting, in the next...

But here capital played its role. A new generation of yesterday's understudies, led by the as-yet unknown Shaquille O'Neal, has entered the forefront of American basketball. Volkov had a freshly signed contract in his hands, but Sasha decided to go to Europe, with Italian and Spanish clubs on his heels for a long time.

Prime time comes in every person's life. For Volkov, it coincided with an Italian business trip, where in the 1992/93 season he played for Panasonic from the picturesque town of Reggio. Sasha, as if by order, time after time provided the southerners with victories in important fights with the North. And by the middle of the season, Victoria for the northerners was clearly associated with the eighth number of Panasonic, which received the capacious nickname Express in the press.

There were no signs of trouble. Reiggio de Calabria was racing full speed ahead towards his first summit. And then, in an ordinary game with Roma, which was then identified with the Croatian player Dino Rajo, Volkov, out of the blue, suffered a knee injury. The operation cost him two months of rehabilitation, and the club first place. The team slipped to 6th place, and all that its leader, who had not really recovered, managed to do was help them reach the semi-finals, where the local Benetton stopped the troublemakers in Treviso.

But courage and perseverance were to be rewarded. And the sports gods gave Sasha the opportunity to overcome the only basketball route from the Varangians to the Greeks.

Perhaps the Hellenes were the first to turn the well-known axiom on its head: Strong clubs make a strong team. Their club surge was a consequence. But one way or another, in 1993, the teams of Yanakopoulos and Kokolis were clear trendsetters in European basketball, gathering the best under their banner. And to make sure of this, it was enough to glance at the application list of the Athenians. In the performances of Panathinaikos, the main roles were played by the best center in Europe, Yugoslav Stojko Vrankovic, an excellent point guard, the champion of Seoul, the Estonian Tiit Sokk, and the unsurpassed Greek Nikos Galis. In such a company, which was also supported by the Americans from the NBA, Volkov, it seemed, could take first place, perhaps in alphabetical order. But Sasha thought differently.

Volkov’s modesty does not allow this, but we still note: the European press wrote that with all the abundance of stars, only Volkov could have won gold for Panathinaikos in the regular season, if the club had fewer soloists and Kosta Politis, the one who led the team, did not command so loudly Athenians in the middle of the season. And so here I had to limit myself to bronze.

But because Volkov was not going to Greece for her. Which means another fight. But now, with her shadow, fate decided so, exchanging it with the Yugoslav Zarko Pospal. The castling, invented by Kokalis, once again radically changed Volkov’s existence. The season in Olympiacos will be the last in his enormous sports career.

But Sasha will find out about this only a year later, when she wins silver medals with Olympiacos in the final match of the European Champions Cup. It was in the match with Real, after this collision with Arlauskas, that Volkov felt as if a grenade had exploded in his back into hundreds of pieces. And he had to stop and ask for a replacement, but the hand surgery didn’t teach him anything. Before the last game of the Greek regular season, Olympiacos became the champion, and Volkov was disabled. He was brought home from the hall on a stretcher. The opinion of the medical council was categorical: basketball was over. Full-fledged being, it is appropriate to say, also. It’s good if after a year or two you manage to take a vertical position...

The fate of Nikolai Ostrovsky persistently knocked on the gate. Overnight, Volkov became a regular at American clinics. The doctors shrugged their shoulders, suggesting that it take time to restore the nerves in the spine responsible for muscle reflexes to be patient.

We will not dignify the name of the man who in the summer of 1996 created a small medical miracle, so as not to attract unnecessary attention to his today’s devoted service to Russian sports. We will cure ourselves by starvation. During fasting, blood will eat all the harmful particles that have accumulated in your body, the guest told Volkov. Do you agree? And Sasha took a risk.

Believe me, he hardly had any idea what he was getting into. The first series of 25 days of hunger strike seemed relatively easy. The second 60 days, of which a week is dry, is already for the Guinness Book of Records. For these 60 days, newspapers and television disappeared from Volkov’s life, and the indicator of human communication was approaching zero. Walks, massage, sauna, massage, walks. On the 40th day, he felt the taste of a sip of water... As a result, something happened that, according to all the laws of medicine, could not easily happen, the back pain disappeared. Sasha understood: he was allowed to think deeply about basketball.

Then Sasha opens his Basketball Support Fund in Kyiv. The dying entertainment is receiving a fresh impetus for development in Ukraine, one that Volkov has been supporting for several years in the Kyiv basketball club he created.

Volkov stood at the helm of the new basketball ship, which from the first day was destined to become the flagship of the Super League. And the team fulfilled all the tasks assigned to it: on the first try it won the gold medals of the Ukrainian championship and became the base for the national team. But for Volkov there were few Ukrainian spaces. In 1999, together with his friend Sarunas Marciulionis, he gave birth to the SEBL North European Basketball League.

The phone rang at dawn, inviting the President of Ukraine L. Kuchma. He invited Volkov to lead the sport and guaranteed 100% support. However, Alexander was not a minister for long: after 159 days, Volkov was offered to relieve himself of the chair due to the reorganization. He returned to the nearby basketball kingdom, the only one of all where the king does not need to be played by his retinue.

Alexander Volkov, Honored Master of Sports of the USSR (1988), champion of the Olympic Games (1988), absolutely the right player for the 1992 Olympics, silver medalist world championships (1986, 1990), European champion (1985), silver (1987) and bronze (1989) medalist of the European championships, two-time champion of the USSR (1988, 1989), silver (1987) and bronze (1983, 1984) medalist of the USSR championships , nai best player Soviet Union (1989), champion of Greece (1985), member of the USSR national team (1984-1991), CIS national team (1992), Ukrainian national team (1998), symbolic world team (1986, 1990).

Member of the executive committee of FIBA Europe (since 2002), member of the executive committee of the NOC of Ukraine (since 2002), vice-president of the Basketball Federation of Ukraine (since 2001), president of the Basketball Development Fund of Ukraine (since 2002), honorary president of the BC Kyiv. Awarded the Order of the Badge of Honor (1988).

Lives in Kyiv.

Legendary basketball player Alexander VOLKOV: “Sabonis and Marciulionis were very friends since childhood, but they constantly argued about which of them was more important in Lithuania. Sometimes they would go into the toilet and fight”

Alexander Volkov is only 40 years old, but they contain so many victories and troubles that they would be enough for several lives. World basketball star, versatile forward, 1988 Olympic champion, European, Soviet and Greek champion - he was one of the first Ukrainian players to break through to the NBA. Nevertheless, several times life subjected him to such tests of strength that it’s time to remember Pavka Korchagin... In the 1993-1994 season, when Volkov played for the Greek Olympiacos, something terrible happened. Fate did not put Alexander in a wheelchair only because he could not even sit... A miracle saved him. And colossal courage. And friends-doctors - one, risking his reputation, injected Sasha, exhausted by unbearable pain, with curare poison, the other carried him over the abyss of long hunger strikes (the last was a 60-day, almost a week of which was “dry”). Having lost 30 kilograms from the then 120, Volkov found the strength to overcome a severe spinal injury, recover and return to big-time sports... President of the Ukrainian Basketball Development Fund (of his own name), president and then honorary president of BC "Kyiv", vice -President of the Ukrainian Basketball Federation, member of the FIBA-Europe executive committee, Alexander Volkov admits that in his youth his favorite words were from the diary of the Roman Emperor Gaius Julius Caesar: “23 years old, and nothing has been done for immortality.”

"MY FIRST CAR WAS A ZHIGULI, AND I FIT IN IT NORMALLY. PROBABLY, THEN THE SPINE BENDED BETTER"

- Sash, how does such a giant live? I can imagine what it’s like for you to get on a plane or a car (I don’t think you go on the subway), or just sleep in a bed, being two meters six centimeters tall... What inconvenience do you experience? Don't you feel like a black sheep?

Now I don’t, I act instinctively, but in childhood, of course, there were complexes, especially when I began to rapidly stretch out and instantly grew out of my clothes. The coat fit me somehow awkwardly, my arms were sticking out of the sleeves - naturally, I was embarrassed to be in sight all the time, because I had to go to training across the whole of Chernigov. I even came up with various tricks - for example, I jumped into the bus at the last stop and quickly sat down, or, if there were no empty seats, I remained standing on the bottom step so as not to stand out...

- Do you remember how old you were when you started to grow rapidly?

Probably 14-15. I was thin, long, awkward, and this, of course, attracted everyone's attention. Then other problems appeared. It was already when I entered the Kiev sports boarding school that I felt more comfortable. Kyiv is a big city, people here didn’t care about me, but how difficult it was to buy clothes and shoes... Besides, I wasn’t earning any money then...

- Try to get some Adidas sneakers...

Just shoes and trousers, a jacket, a coat! Some things were altered by my mother from my father’s things, some were bought with great difficulty. It’s fortunate that I got into the USSR national team and started traveling abroad. There are great big stores there, where we basketball players tried to buy everything, and for the first time I felt human.

True, when we went to games and training camps, on the way I prayed that the hotel bed would have only one back - at the head.

- What if the back was also at the foot?

Then, if the administrators did not comply with the request to change the bed or give another room, the lost night was ensured. This happened especially often in the regions - provincial hotels were terribly uncomfortable. Well, I tried to lie across - I couldn’t even put a chair under my feet. I thought: a short bed would be better, but without a back... I curled up in the fetal position, but still felt discomfort, could not relax... Now in hotels you can choose a bed upon request, spacious, without a back...

- How do you adapt on airplanes?

If possible, I always book a ticket in the first row of business class - there is more distance between the seats. These are specific tricks. People of normal height do not think about where they will sit, but we calculate in advance. If you can't get business class, I ask for a seat in economy class near the emergency exit...

You've probably flown around America on domestic flights in small airplanes, which are difficult for a person of average height to squeeze into. How did you get out of the situation there?

In hopeless situations, you just have to endure it, curled up like a bagel. Usually there are some options, and most people are compassionate - if they can help, they always help.

But with cars it’s much easier now. My first car was a Zhiguli, and I remember I fit in it just fine. The same giants sat next to us, and we rode without much inconvenience. Probably, the spine bent better back then... Now you look at the Lada and think: “Did I really ever drive in this cell?” Thank God, there is already an opportunity to choose a larger car. In America, a Mitsubishi jeep served me faithfully for many years, and in Kyiv I drive a Ford Expeditor.

Sasha, your height is two meters six centimeters. Alexander Belostenny has 2.14, Volodya Tkachenko has 2.20, and poor Alexander Sizonenko has 2.38...

Already 2.43, and the foot is size 58 - it continues to grow...

- In my opinion, this is a tragedy for the guys. Or am I overdramatizing the situation?

Well, let’s say, Belostenny is still okay, from a distance his height is not very different from 2.10, but Tkachenko had constant problems. Not to mention Sasha Sizonenko, who played for Spartak St. Petersburg and Stroitel Kuibyshev (his name was included in the Guinness Book of Records as the tallest basketball player in the world) - now he lives somewhere in St. Petersburg, I don’t know in what condition. ..

In serious condition... I read about him: he had surgery on the pituitary gland twice, because of severe osteoporosis, he walks on crutches, he is plagued by arrhythmia and diabetes, he lives on the pension of a group II disabled person...

Trouble... We are called Gullivers, but few people know about the problems of big people. You don’t need to look far for examples - the former basketball player Nikolai Sushak is too serious with his legs and spine... But you can’t say that he is a supergiant - only 2.10...

Giants have complexities and certain complexes. It’s fortunate that there are sports where height provides certain opportunities, even advantages, and that people are interested in you. If the guys aged 2.17, 2.18 had no need for basketball, volleyball, handball, what would they do in life, especially now, who would need them? Thank God, they have a chance not just to make money, but to be in demand, maybe become stars recognized by the whole world.

Now a provocative question. You achieved imaginable and unimaginable medals and titles in basketball, you were a champion of Europe and the Olympic Games, you achieved success in the NBA, Greece, and a number of other countries for whose clubs you played. If, for example, you were asked today: “Sasha, do you want to exchange all this for normal height?”, would you agree?

Well, of course not. By the way, I can’t say that I’m such a colossus - sometimes I can buy things even in ordinary stores and slip through somewhere unnoticed. And in recent times - in today’s life, when some kind of prosperity and financial stability have appeared - growth does not interfere.

At the end of the 80s, when, in fact, your loudest victories took place, the country was going through a transitional period: before perestroika there were one circumstances, after it - others, it was already possible to earn money and save for a comfortable old age. And although the Chinese only wish their enemies to live in times of change, do you think it’s good that you found yourself at this turning point in eras?

Perestroika was an undoubted success for our generation. In fact, we were the first - not only basketball players, but athletes in general - who tasted the joy and experience of real professional life, decent salaries and attitude towards oneself. We could compare what we have now and when we played for the USSR national team or our own leading clubs of the Union.

I won’t say that it was better abroad than at home - there you are generally in a different state, in a different world. It was life in two different systems coordinates - literally and figuratively. But our players were very capable, talented - real stars of world basketball: Kievans, Muscovites, Leningraders...

- ...Vilnius people...

Residents of Kaunas, Riga... Soviet fans bought a ticket to the game for two or three rubles, well, five, and watched the best players in Europe and the world (today in the USA a front-row ticket to a Los Angeles Lakers game costs from 500 to 2000 dollars) . What a stir there was then! At that time in the USSR the concept of “empty seat in the hall” did not exist - people sat on the steps, even us basketball players sometimes did not have enough chairs.

- What were the CSKA - Zalgiris matches worth?

And this is a completely different story! At the same time, I sincerely feel sorry for the generation of slightly older guys (not to mention the winners of the ’72 Olympics), who saw our capabilities and understood that they, too, could taste all the benefits in full...

- They were heroes...

But their opportunities came too late; it was more difficult for them than for us. Of course, we had our difficulties, but we still became pioneers professional sports for domestic players, but they failed to do this for objective reasons. They followed our careers, saw what we could afford... I know many guys, and, in my opinion, they have developed some kind of internal complex...

- It's a shame...

Sergei Tarakanov played with me at CSKA. He is older, but was able to play a little in Belgium and Germany - not for very much money. When I was getting ready to leave the NBA, he called and said: “Sasha, if fate gave me such an opportunity, I would sit there on the bench for free! Don’t even think about leaving!” There was such regret in his voice that he did not have time...

- ...on the footsteps of this train...

If his generation were two or three years younger, he, too, would have fulfilled the dream of any basketball player - to play at least six months in the NBA and say: “I was there.” Back then it was very prestigious, almost unattainable, it’s hard to even think of what could be better...

“SABONIS ONCE CONFESSED TO ME: “I’M NOT AFRAID OF ANYONE EXCEPT GOMEL”

- As they say, “see Paris and die”...

Nobody wanted to become an NBA champion - just to get into the All Stars Game!

Now this is a completely surmountable path, all the guys dream of getting there, believe in luck and have already begun to think about how to become an NBA champion. For example, Andrei Kirilenko is our first representative in the “All Stars Game”...

Sasha, is the level of NBA players really much higher than those who also successfully perform in prestigious championships in a number of other countries?

I would say that in many ways it is promotion. In general, world basketball is currently experiencing a decline; it feels like a breakdown is about to occur, after which it will be forced to rise. Some clubs are emerging, new relationships are emerging... In Russia, for example, crazy amounts of money are spent on basketball, we also have a certain prosperity, even a certain excitement. Things look similar in Poland, but in Greece it’s the opposite - the financial collapse of almost all clubs. By the way, in Turkey, where there were crazy contracts five years ago, things have gotten much worse.

There is a change of leaders in Europe, and there is still an incomprehensible structure of the current European basketball... The conflict between two organizations - FIBA-Europe and the Union of Basketball Leagues of Europe ULEB, has dragged on, and they are not conducting any negotiations. At the end of World War II, the victors demanded complete and unconditional surrender from the Germans, and now both disputing sides expect the same surrender from each other. I, a member of the FIBA Executive Committee, cannot understand: they seem to be adults, Europeans, friends...

- Money, Sasha, money...

Nightmare: they are stubborn and do not want to make concessions, they are waiting for who will bend first. As a result, all European club basketball is suffering. I feel that the NBA will come to Europe in some form from these wreckage (even though I myself am part of this association and have been in its kitchen)...

- ...and will absorb both FIBA and ULEB?

This will all end! Of course, on the one hand, it’s a good option, but on the other hand, it’s their own fault: everything will happen as a result of the intractability of the Europeans.

- The title “Olympic champion” does not have the prefix “ex-”, it is for life. How did you feel when in 1988, as part of the star team of Alexander Gomelsky, you became an Olympic champion? Didn't it seem to you that this was a peak, above which it was already
can't get up?

It is impossible to convey those feelings; it really was some kind of indescribable euphoria. It so happened that we became Olympic champions, and we had to fly home only after three days. The Olympics are still ongoing, and we have already lost our heads with happiness! It all started not just weakly - even, I would say, gloomily. The very first match, and a mediocre loss to the Yugoslavs - the teams and my personal...

- It was also a terrible match with Puerto Rico...

Yes, they swayed with a creak. We expected the game to go well with Sabonis’s arrival, but it turned out the opposite: we were preparing for the summer without him, he arrived in three days, and all the game schemes broke down. It was necessary to somehow adapt, but people were already on edge - the end of preparation. We barely got used to it...

Of course, well done Gomelsky for surviving all this!

- How did he set you up for victory: did he shout, curse?

Firstly, in Seoul we somehow came together internally, everyone sincerely believed that we could win, although we didn’t admit it to others - not even to ourselves... Never before have I seen such extreme concentration of each player, and that’s all But, as usually happened in Soviet times, at the start we surrendered to the Yugoslavs - our most irreconcilable rivals. Usually in such cases, some Komsomol leaders, heads of the sports committee come to meetings to scold the players...

- ...they say, as at Stalingrad, that “there is no land for us beyond the Volga”...

And why are you traitors, we will show you where the crayfish spend the winter! And then suddenly Gomelsky calmly promised: “Guys, I won’t let anyone near you, we’re the best anyway and we’ll beat everyone here.” He very skillfully instilled in us faith in a miracle, which eventually happened.

- I wonder how such a small person can cope with giants? What keys did he pick for you?

Apparently this is a mysterious natural phenomenon. It happens, for example, that for some reason a handsome man lives with an inconspicuous woman (and vice versa), no one understands what he sees in her, but they dote on each other. Apparently, a small person knows and feels especially well what big people need...

For many years in a row, Alexander Gomelsky traditionally invited us to his birthdays, where many friends and famous people gathered. Previously, he usually organized veterans’ games, but then it became noticeable that this no longer aroused the same interest and ceased to be a beautiful sports spectacle: after all, we are slowly getting older, the level of fighting is not the same, the speed is not the same. Now we're just going to chat...

So, at one of these holidays, Sabonis lit a cigarette somewhere on the sidelines. Alexander Yakovlevich suddenly appeared, and Arvydas hastily began to hide the cigarette, although so many years had passed...

- Reflex - there's no escape...

Sabonis once admitted to me: “I’m not afraid of anyone except Alexander Yakovlevich.”

"WE KNEW: IT'S BETTER NOT TO JOKE WITH THE WHITE WALL"

- Many years later, Gomelsky told me that all these three post-victory Olympic days, the basketball players had a terrible drinking session. So violent that even he felt uneasy, and he threatened Belostenny that he would take away the title of “Honored Master of Sports” for the third time...

Well yes, it was... (smiles). True, I would rather call it general rejoicing...

The Olympic Village in Seoul was a specially built huge residential building, no different from our nine-story buildings (when the Olympians left, townspeople moved in there). There were two apartments on the staircase. We lived in one - number 227, and in the other - the rest of our delegation: doctors, trainers. The apartment is neat, designed for an ordinary Korean family: a hall, several bedrooms, two toilets, decent furniture, a TV...

I return in the evening after the victory - the table is already set, guests of absolutely incomprehensible nationalities, countries, sports are constantly coming...

- The fraternization has begun...

And real fun. People took turns as if in a kaleidoscope: one slept on the sofa in the hall, woke up, another lay down in his place, someone dozed off right in the bathroom...

Gradually, a mountain of used plates and glasses, empty bottles, and forgotten things grew on the floor. The atmosphere was festive and peaceful, but they complained to Gomelsky that we were rowdy...

- Didn’t he participate in the manifestation of general joy?

Alexander Yakovlevich is a very strict person: he ran a cross-country race and rests, sleeps at night and carefully looks after himself. Of course, he also always supported the holiday, not without this, but he had to react when the head of the Soviet delegation, Marat Gramov, called him and said: calm down your people, it’s a shame in front of the world. The Olympics are still going on, but the basketball players are causing a riot, yelling and not letting the rest of the athletes sleep...

The wise Gomelsky realized that he could not cope with the newly-crowned Olympic champions so easily, and made two tactical moves. Firstly, he intercepted another bag of alcohol, handed over, so to speak, from the outside, and locked it in his metal safe, and secondly, he told Belostenny: “Sasha, you were deprived of the “Honored Master of Sports” twice, tomorrow you will be awarded him for the third time. If in half an hour there is no peace and order here, you will not restore your rank.”

We laughed: “Well, what kind of blackmail is this?”, but after half an hour there was no one else in the room and there was perfect cleanliness, as if the maids had come...

- What words did White-walled find?

I don't remember anymore. We were indignant, demanded to be left alone, shouted: “Sasha, what’s the matter?! How can we break up? You’re kidding - we became Olympic champions!” But he remained adamant: “That’s it, let’s go for a walk and that’s enough!” Let's clean up all this mess." Nobody wanted to get involved with him, of course...

- Were you afraid?

That’s not the point, it’s just that if he’s set on something, it’s better not to joke with him.

- Curious, have there been situations when things came to a fight between famous basketball players?

Constantly...

- Yes? And what were they quarreling about?

Usually they could get into fights during training, where, naturally, brawls broke out periodically. Sometimes they argued about political topics. The Baltic states, for example, opposed the Muscovites... There were no major scandals, but sometimes they balanced on the brink...

- Has self-awareness awakened?

Certainly. In addition, there was constant competition between Sabonis and Marciulionis. They are fellow countrymen, they studied in the same class and always competed, trying to figure out which of them was more important in Lithuania. They were very friendly, but sometimes they fought seriously...

I remember a long tour of the USA - 40 days of constant games and flights. This is very difficult to withstand psychologically - with our overloads, seeing each other for days. Everyone knew: America is a test of whether you are fit to bet on (not only in basketball, but also in life). Gomelsky constantly took three or four young players there to check what he could count on and what to do with them next. So it was not easy, and the final release came only on the plane on the way home, although before that... We saved money throughout the tour - bonuses, daily allowances, and in New York we were given two days...

- ...to rob stores?

Let's call it that. We had proven points suggested by friends - Russian-speaking emigrants. Some people bought gifts for loved ones, but mostly they took radio equipment. At this stage, all disagreements ended, the next morning fraternization began, all grievances were forgiven, and everything became completely fine on the plane. At that time, flights were long, with two landings (not like the current direct flights Kyiv - New York). First they landed in Canadian Newfoundland, then in Irish Shannon, and only then in Moscow, from where they dispersed throughout the Union. Naturally, as has always been our custom, we relaxed a little - our plane, flight attendants, finally, family members, the Russian language... And often one could observe the following scene: Sabonis and Marciulionis sat down next to each other somewhere in the back, and began peacefully talk, and after some time everyone turned around and saw that they were in a clinch (laughs).

Moreover, at the airport, in the hall for transit passengers, they could go into the toilet and fight. Then they settled down again in the adjacent seats in the aircraft cabin as if nothing had happened. They were constantly telling each other something in Lithuanian, unraveling an unclear relationship that had been going on since childhood.

- Are these disputes still ongoing?

Well, now the guys are adults and won’t show it in plain sight.

- Will they go to the toilet?

- (Laughs). No, they behave correctly - it’s still a level, but I think they still have so much childhood left in them!

- Sasha, in the opinion of a professional, is Sabonis really a great basketball player?

I think that he is the greatest of the greatest! To go through so many injuries, play in the NBA, then break a multimillion-dollar contract, play almost for free for your native Zalgiris and practically take it to the Final Four - it’s just a miracle! Yes, the Kaunas team lost the decisive game to Maccabi Tel Aviv to reach the Final Four, after which the Israelis, who had one chance in a thousand, became champions of the ULEB Euroleague. In the last half-minute of the game, Sabonis sat on the bench for five fouls and could no longer help the team, but 15-20 seconds before the end, Zalgiris won six points and, by rights, should have made it to the Final Four.

Sabonis, at 39 (almost 40) years old, was recognized as the best player in the Euroleague! Who else, after spending five million dollars a year, can return home to take care of the image of their team, raise its level, give it a chance for the future, and attract sponsors? Such examples of nobility are extremely rare, not to mention Arvydas’ talent and fanaticism. He is a patriot, of which there are few, you can argue with him on any topic, criticize Lithuania, Kaunas a little, but if you touch Zalgiris, that’s it, that’s the end, Sabonis doesn’t forgive that.

"AT THE FIRST NBA GAME I WAS SHOCKED: WE WERE LOSSING, AND SUDDENLY THE COACH AND THE BEST PLAYER STARTED TO FIGHT..."

- Sasha, the NBA was generally something unattainable for a Soviet person. You not only got there, but also proved yourself to be the best. What surprised you the most there?

Of course, I dreamed about the NBA, read everything I could get my hands on, knew details about every player - probably no one else had such information as I did. I studied the language - I bought a tutorial, found a teacher who gave English lessons (for five rubles per hour) ...

When I arrived in the USA, my first impression was admiration, but also a little... disappointment...

- What?

It cannot be said that sport is a complete injustice, it is fair, but there are also elements of injustice in it... I felt that my regalia, physical and psychological data were not enough for me to prove to these guys that I could immediately join the team and be with them on equal terms in the most serious moments.

- Isn’t an Olympic champion a regalia for them?

No, this is impressive, but still a white man from Europe, especially from the Soviet Union...

- ...among the black beauties...

I can't say that I was poorly received, but the realization that in the first game you are only out for a minute is shocking. In training you are the best, in the preliminary games you are praised, but when it comes down to it, that’s it, they don’t trust you. I went through this many years ago when I first got into the sport, and with the Atlanta Hawks I had to start from scratch again. It was hard to readjust...

- What was it - tactics or politics?

There, the coach has no time to think whether you understood what he wanted to tell you. For example, today you can address our players in any language - English, Russian, Ukrainian - but this does not mean that it has reached them... And then in the NBA there was such intensity of games... Can you imagine how difficult it was for an English-speaking coach to assess the situation ? And although I spoke English quite well, I myself was not entirely sure that I fully understood what they wanted from me (at first, of course). And the coach noticed that once there was a flash of misunderstanding in my eyes, and he didn’t explain it the second time.

There were others unpleasant situations. At the very first game I was shocked: we were losing, and suddenly Michael Fratello and Dominique Wilkins started... fighting... Imagine, the coach and the best player! They are separated, they curse at each other... Maybe, I think this is an accident, but a minute later Moses Malone, known for his extremely aggressive style of play in attack, grappled with Fratello. This is the situation...

- Funny...

At the same time, the older generation of guys - real stars - received me very well. For example, the same Moses, who had already finished playing at the club. By the way, he was one of the first who, at 19 years old, came to the NBA right after high school, bypassing college basketball. Nowadays no one wants to go to college, because studying there is very expensive, but then it was rare.

Much has been said about Moses Malone different stories: the guy was born in Pittsburgh, Virginia, in a poor family, grew up without a father, his mother locked the refrigerator so that he would not eat all the supplies... Moses spoke very little English - in such Negro slang that practically nothing was possible understand - but was extremely sociable. For me, Malone was an idol, a star, it was inconvenient for me to avoid communicating with him - so funny things happened.

In America, the life of athletes is organized differently from ours. We are used to the fact that in a restaurant or canteen the team sets tables with the same dishes - we ate together and left together. But there it’s different: you were given a daily allowance, and do whatever you want with it.

I got up in the morning, went down to the hotel restaurant, and ordered breakfast. I see Moses coming. He sat down at my table and started talking to me. I so wanted to answer something, to understand what he was talking about, but... Such creepy, monstrously untranslatable slang mixed with English obscenities can sometimes be heard only in humorous American films...

The next day I go out to eat again, and Moses is there again. I looked around, no one else was visible. Then I ask the guys: “Why don’t you come down for breakfast?” They responded: “We order room service so as not to talk to Moses.” And I followed their example.

I just couldn’t save him from him - he rides on the bus and constantly talks about something. I ask Cliff Livingston, who played on our team: “Why is everyone laughing?” - “No one can understand Moses”...

And he played well! At the very beginning, when even before the training camp the guys are assembled for individual training, Malone called me: “Let’s play you one on one.” He is, of course, a center, but I was in good shape, I was quicker and beat him. Moses looked at me with respect (they said they brought a normal guy), recognized me and then always defended me. And his wife helped mine a lot - in the first year of my contract, Alla was pregnant, our eldest daughter was born in America...

Then young people came to the team, to whom we, foreigners, especially from somewhere in the Soviet Union, seemed like foreign bodies. They didn’t notice us at all; they had their own culture. The older generation of dark-skinned guys are almost my family: I still keep in touch with all of them, and I say hello to the new ones when we meet, but no more.

I once asked Valery Filippovich Borzov: “How can we explain that black athletes show such brilliant results in sprinting and almost never let whites get ahead?” He answered very interestingly. I want to ask you the same question: “Why is American basketball mostly “black”? Why are black athletes better than white athletes and are they better?

Better, and I think it's in their physiology. I’m not a scientist to argue such things, but blacks are really more flexible, jumpier than us, play sharper, and grasp everything on the fly. Basketball is part of their culture; since childhood, everyone dreams of a career in this sport. American schools often administer tests. Little black boys sit on the floor and are asked one by one what they would like to be. Doctors? Lawyers (lawyers)? Several hands go up. Basketball players? Everyone is raising their hand. On the one hand, as soon as they learn to walk, they are already carrying a ball. On the other hand, these guys are closer to nature, healthier, and physically stronger. The average black person has a more athletic figure, although it cannot be said that if you are African American, you are automatically a good basketball player. Of course, among them there are also bad athletes and just losers. At the same time, there are whites who will give odds to any dark-skinned people.

-You didn’t become a racist in America?

Quite the contrary. I grew up in a provincial city and when, coming to Kyiv, I saw black people on the trolleybus or subway, it seemed to me something extraordinary. As a child, a black man was as strange to me as, say, King Kong. Today, I, my wife and children who live in the USA, absolutely do not care what color the skin of passers-by, acquaintances and friends.

"AFTER THE ANESTHESIA, I WOKE UP ALL VOIFIED. MY ARM WAS IN SOME HEAVY PLAST. I TRIED TO LIFT IT - IT WOULDN'T RISE. I WANTED TO GET UP - I CAN'T..."

- In America you experienced a terrible trauma. In Yuri Krikun’s biographical book about you, one of the chapters begins with the words: “Volkov came to his senses covered in vomit. He couldn’t move his arms, he was paralyzed...”. What happened to you, Sasha?

- (Pause)... Imagine, just a wrist injury that happened in the first year, which was supposed to be a shock year for me - a real springboard into the future ... I was counting on a long career in the NBA, but twice in a row I seriously injured my hands and finished the season with severe pain . When I underwent a medical examination, the doctors said that I had cracks in the bones of my wrists: I needed to put on a plaster cast or have surgery. I asked if everything could heal without any intervention. They said yes, if I didn’t overexert myself too much, but the cracks not only did not heal, but in the second year they peeled off - I could no longer lift a glass of water to my mouth or shake hands...

I decided to have surgery. I imagined it something like this: they cut something off, took it out, sewed it up, and you went home.

And now from Atlanta I have to fly to Dallas to operate on my first wrist. The wife asks: “Take the necessary things with you - clothes, books.” I say: “Why? Give me a newspaper, a cosmetic bag. I’ll be back in a couple of days and start training.”

I arrive at the clinic and feel that I am starting to worry, some incomprehensible anxiety is growing...

Early in the morning I was taken to the operating room, laid on the table...

I woke up after the anesthesia all, sorry, vomited. I don’t understand anything, my hand is in some kind of heavy cast. I tried to lift it, but it wouldn’t rise; I wanted to get up, but I couldn’t.

- Did you experience shock?

Of course, this is the first operation in my life. I couldn't even imagine what was happening...

-...such helplessness?

I just thought: how do people undergo operations on the heart, brain, liver?.. After all, they only cut my hands - look at how small the scar is. It would seem, what’s wrong? But they also pulled out a piece of cartilage from my hip to attach it to the non-union bone in my wrist and stimulate this process. (When they told me about this, I realized where the bruise on half my thigh came from). Oh, it was actually a nightmare! I couldn’t step on my foot or even stand up; I had terrible pain all over my body. I thought that I would have a slight local pain in my hand, but here it’s just agony...

A week after the operation, I tried to walk, but I couldn’t (running was out of the question). Then I had to learn to walk again...

Thank God, the second surgical intervention was easier.

- Was there despair?

Yes... (Frowns). The operations were behind me, I believed that in a few weeks I would still get up and be in normal shape, but two or three months pass, and the pain does not stop, my hands do not develop...

I remember at some point I said to myself: “I need to calculate how much I earned under the contract, and, probably, it’s time to think about how I will live further... without basketball.”

Fortunately, I met Lesha Ovchinnikov, an emigrant from Leningrad, a devotee of yoga, well acquainted with oriental medicine...Thank him!..

Did the American basketball system throw you out or did they tell you: “Sasha, don’t worry. We will fully pay for your treatment, everything will be fine”?

Nobody threw me out. After the operation, I remained a member of the team and was paid a salary. When I could already walk, I went everywhere with the guys, sat on the bench during games... No, everything was fine. They treated me very loyally, with understanding, no one forced my entry onto the site. Over the summer I recovered and played in America for another year after the injuries...

"IN RELATION TO SOMEONE IN THE CABINET OF MINISTERS, SOMETIMES I WANTED TO USE PHYSICAL FORCE"

- Several years ago, Alexander Volkov became the Minister of Sports of Ukraine, which was perceived ambiguously: they say, how could such an intelligent, bright, charming person become an official? As far as I know, this position brought you nothing but disappointment and heartache...

Dima, I will stand up for the officials - there are many smart and bright people among them.

- I have no doubt...

But this really came as a surprise to me...

- Who proposed to take a high position?

I had heard rumors for a long time, but Leonid Danilovich directly suggested it. I was probably raised in such a way that I couldn’t answer “no” or “I’m afraid.” Of course, I was afraid of this appointment, I didn’t understand what I would do there, but to refuse, and then scold myself all my life for the missed chance?..

I won’t lie, it was hard, there were moments when I was humiliated (at least, so it seemed to me), when I felt out of place. Yes, something worked out, but let’s just say I wasn’t happy...

And what is it like for a creative, basketball-loving person who recently played to suddenly sit in a boring ministerial chair? We have to make decisions, sign mountains of papers...

It's difficult, of course. I am grateful to the assistants and in general to everyone who did not set me up, although this could have been done simply.

A lot of people helped, but there were also those who took advantage of my weakness... Here the situation is approximately the same as if I called one of the ministry workers to play basketball and mocked him: they say, you can’t be on the court just like me...

When a new player joins the basketball team, the veterans give him some resistance, test him for lice, for strength. Was there something similar when newcomer Alexander Volkov got into the Cabinet of Ministers?

Well, of course, of course...

- And how did you check?

Some bosses spoke very specific texts!

- Which?

You know, I can’t even quote them to Bulvar... (Smiles). At first I was a little dumbfounded: having lived in the West for 10 years, I got used to different relationships. “What’s going on?” I think. “Where are human rights?” (laughs). And they explained to me: Sasha, this is the way it is, here this is the normal style of communication with subordinates...

- Did you have any desire to answer in equally strong terms?

It arose, of course, not only verbally - sometimes I wanted to use physical force...

Yes! Thank God I restrained myself. In response, he simply retorted and put forward counter-arguments. If he felt he was right, he tried to defend it.

So there were both good and bad moments, but time passed, and I gained a lot of experience, met many interesting people, saw life from an unusual side...

- ...from behind the scenes...

And of course, I am grateful to Leonid Danilovich for calling me there. I don't regret for a second that I made this decision.

Recently I learned one fact that simply shocked me. Roman Grigorievich Viktyuk told me an amazing story. “You know,” he said, “there is a very talented guy who is going to become a director, but he has absolutely no money. I asked everyone: “Establish a scholarship for a man so that he can study - a real star will grow out of him.” This is the future of Ukraine!" Nobody did anything... By chance we met Sasha Volkov, I asked him and... a few days later the money was transferred."

Sasha, that’s a lot of money! What kind of emotional impulse is this? I want people to know about your action - it’s unfashionable in our country to do something nice for others, to give joy, to pay for studies...

Dima, it turned out very simple. Roman Grigorievich and I talked (by the way, on the set of your video), he said that he would like to help a former basketball player who dreams of becoming a director. The guy, they say, is from a very poor, large family... I said: okay, let the future star come see me, I’ll talk to him and, if I can, help.

After some time, a guy came - really, tall, strapping... I remembered him - he played in Rovno and Kiev CSKA, but his sporting fate did not work out... And I have a fund created to help basketball players - current and former. In general, I gave the order to transfer money - I hope Viktyuk’s “godson” will turn out to be a good director.

- Can you call yourself an accomplished person, an established personality, or is everything still ahead?

I concluded a long time ago: as soon as you decide that you have already achieved everything and are completely accomplished, that’s the end. At a certain moment, it seemed to me that I had achieved something in basketball - and my career went downhill sharply, failures and injuries began. I just stopped setting goals for myself, I became uninterested in listening to anyone, it seemed that I knew everything myself. This feeling of omniscience, the feeling that you have reached heights and can now automatically move up, leads to the fact that you really stop, or rather, roll down...

Now I think that I am at the origins, at the beginning, and am just trying to find my way. It seems to me that I found it correctly, but I’m not always sure about it. Therefore, I am interested in living, reading, communicating with bright people who will help me realize something new.

I was recently invited to a meeting with George H. W. Bush, former President of the United States. Thank God, knowledge of English allowed me to listen to him without an interpreter. You know, I didn’t even expect to get such pleasure. The man is in excellent shape (he celebrated his 80th birthday by parachuting twice from a height of 4000 meters!), everything is fine with him. He said: “If you are 80, this does not mean that you are no longer in the game. Don’t stop there, don’t sit on the couch, don’t stay in the hospital - work!” Bush advised doing noble deeds - helping children in need. This, according to him, gives a charge of youth and an incentive to live brightly...

Or the same Gomelsky - who can call him an old man? And such a thought will not arise. He has a young wife and small children. I am “retiring”, and he is seething, he has plans for 10, or even 20 years ahead. The most important thing is that Alexander Yakovlevich is not afraid to learn and change. I have been watching him for a long time and remember that at 50 he was one thing, at 55 he was another, at 60 he continued to transform, improve and is now developing further.

He was a brilliant coach, and now he has become the president of CSKA. Everyone said: “Well, Gomelsky won’t let anyone in there, he’ll run everything himself.”

- Did you let me in?

He didn’t just let him in - he made his “enemy” Dusan Ivkovic, with whom he had been fighting and arguing for decades, as the head coach, and appointed as general manager a competitor with whom he had generally fought, Sergei Kushchenko from Perm, the former president of Ural Great. Gomelsky took them to his place, realizing that these were the best people. Kushchenko entrusted the promotion of the team, and Ivkovic - everything that concerns basketball itself. I think that if a person in his eighties is able to make such decisions, it means that he thinks, analyzes, and strives to change himself.

That is why to say to yourself: they say, I have already developed as a person is a big mistake.

"OUTSTANDING NBA PLAYERS EARN 20-30 MILLION DOLLARS PER YEAR. MICHAEL JORDAN - 60 MILLION"

- I’m not asking if you’re a wealthy person - I think this question is tactless and indecent - but is it true that there’s a lot of money in the NBA?

Huge! In my opinion, the contracts there are too big.

- Is basketball really profitable?
- Yes, everything pays off. Three or four years ago there was a slight stagnation in the NBA, but now it is on the rise again. Television pays the association crazy amounts of money, and the most interesting thing is that this happens not through the efforts of advertising managers, but through the players themselves... Do you know who significantly increased the NBA budget over the past year?

- No...

One person. You'll never guess...

- Who?

Chinese Yao Ming.

- How did he manage to do this?

Thanks to advertising television rights to his country, all of China is rooting for him and watching games with his participation. Can you imagine what kind of advertising market a state with a population of almost one and a half billion has?! Sometimes you watch Houston Rockets games in America, and there are Chinese characters on the billboards along the perimeter of the court...

- How much can American basketball superstars actually earn per year today?

Outstanding players - 20-30 million dollars each, Michael Jordan - 60 million (a monument to him was erected in front of the Chicago Sports Palace "United Center" during his lifetime)...

And what, as a rule, do they use these incredible amounts of money for? Are there any successful businessmen among basketball players?

But of course, I also know those who, even having such crazy money, will never spend an extra penny. Many athletes live modestly, as they are accustomed to - they have opened accounts in reputable banks, receive high interest rates, but do not allow themselves unnecessary luxury. There are also such specimens (forgive me if I express myself a little incorrectly) to whom no matter how much you pay, they will still pay down to the last cent. I think such different attitudes towards money are characteristic not only of highly paid basketball stars, but also of people in general.

- What do spendthrifts spend on - on casinos, on women?

They have 10 cars, two or three houses, apartments in different countries peace. Much is given to relatives - this is the custom. Black people hold family values in high esteem, and there are usually a lot of relatives and friends of relatives. The whole clan needs to live, so they help each other when someone escapes poverty.

By the way, it’s not for nothing that basketball players used to be mandatory in the States - after school and before professional career- Spent four to five years in college. During this time, they developed as individuals, as athletes, and managed to understand whether basketball was worth making their profession or whether it was just a hobby.

Imagine, Dima, that they signed a contract with you, a high school graduate, for, say, three million dollars. Wouldn't you go crazy with that kind of money? Personally, I simply wouldn’t know what to do with them, and I’d probably do a lot of stupid things... I remember, having received my first salary - 140 rubles, I couldn’t decide what to spend it on. I can imagine what would happen to me if we were talking about a multi-million dollar contract...

- Now our basketball players also receive considerable contracts - are they going crazy or?..

This is a different story. Our players are... (looks for a word).

- I think I hit a nerve with you...

Products (please forgive me for calling them that) of the transition period between that and this system - they fell into a rift, everything got mixed up... The worst thing is that some of them were too focused on money. They don’t understand that you need to grow creatively, search, and the money will come by itself, they will bring it to you! No, guys measure everything in dollars, euros, hryvnias - how much per month, what bonuses, bonuses, additional benefits... Some openly declare: they say, I got mine, everything is fine, don’t touch me, I’m fine as is, no more , no less is needed...

- Thank you, is that enough?..

And this is a tragedy, because the athlete has no desire, no incentive to move forward. There were times in our clubs when we owed players several months' wages, and if they played poorly, we could not make a claim against them because we felt like debtors. And they came out onto the site as if they were doing you a favor. Once in the locker room I told them: “Guys, you will remember these times when you have money, but you will receive your salary on time, and play in full force you’ll get out of the habit and no longer realize yourself 100 percent. Separate the concepts of “money” and “professionalism”: either leave big sport altogether, or give your all.”

And so it happened: today salaries and bonuses are paid on time, but they can no longer give their all in the game...

Sasha, are there any bright names now - at the level of the stars of past years - or has the transition period leveled off their skills?

The bar for the average level has even risen, but I want to say: “Yes, the basketball player Name-Rek is a star,” but I can’t. We have several players in Ukraine who could be considered potential stars (I really hope so). And in Europe there are guys who also want to be given star status, but for now, alas...

- Your tongue won't turn?

Yes. Two Ukrainians play in the NBA - Stanislav Medvedenko and Vitaly Potapenko, but Slava is not the first in the Los Angeles Lakers, and Vitalik is in the Seattle SuperSonics. But they don’t play for the national team, so that at least here they can be called real luminaries of basketball... Therefore, I prefer to say that today we simply have very talented athletes.

You said that you didn’t feel happy in the chair of the sports minister. Well, now do you feel like a fully realized, calm, confident person?

Certainly. I’m not chasing something unrealistic, I just know that I’m in the right place, and I understand what to do next, I see the prospect. I try to make this path visible to those around me...

Of course, there are enough difficulties, there are depressions, failures, resentments, misunderstandings (and mutual - I don’t understand, they don’t understand me), but, thank God, here in Ukraine we no longer have to run around with our tongue hanging out looking for funds to realize our plans, But there is an opportunity to implement them...

Alexander Volkov is only 40 years old, but they contain so many victories and troubles that they would be enough for several lives.

World basketball star, versatile forward, 1988 Olympic champion, European, Soviet and Greek champion - he was one of the first Ukrainian players to break through to the NBA. Nevertheless, several times life subjected him to such tests of strength that it’s time to remember Pavka Korchagin...

In the 1993-1994 season, when Volkov played for the Greek Olympiacos, something terrible happened. Fate did not put Alexander in a wheelchair only because he could not even sit... A miracle saved him. And colossal courage. And friends-doctors - one, risking his reputation, injected Sasha, exhausted by unbearable pain, with curare poison, the other carried him over the abyss of long hunger strikes (the last was a 60-day, almost a week of which was “dry”).

Having lost 30 kilograms from the then 120, Volkov found the strength to overcome a severe spinal injury, recover and return to big-time sports...

President of the Ukrainian Basketball Development Fund (his own name), president and then honorary president of BC "Kyiv", vice-president of the Ukrainian Basketball Federation, member of the FIBA-Europe executive committee, Alexander Volkov admits that in his youth his favorite words were the words from the diary of the Roman Emperor Gaius Julius Caesar: "23 years, and nothing has been done for immortality."

“My first car was a Zhiguli, and I fit in it just fine. Probably, my spine was bent better then.”

Sash, how does such a giant live? I can imagine what it’s like for you to get on a plane or a car (I don’t think you go on the subway), or just sleep in a bed, being two meters six centimeters tall... What inconvenience do you experience? Don't you feel like a black sheep?

- Do you remember how old you were when you started to grow rapidly?

- Try to get some Adidas sneakers...

True, when we went to games and training camps, on the way I prayed that the hotel bed would have only one back - at the head.

- What if the back was also at the foot?

- How do you adapt on airplanes?

You've probably flown around America on domestic flights in small airplanes, which are difficult for a person of average height to squeeze into. How did you get out of the situation there?

In hopeless situations, you just have to endure it, curled up like a bagel. Usually there are some options, and most people are compassionate - if they can help, they always help.

Sasha, your height is two meters six centimeters. Alexander Belostenny has 2.14, Volodya Tkachenko has 2.20, and poor Alexander Sizonenko has 2.38...

Already 2.43, and the foot is size 58 - it continues to grow...

- In my opinion, this is a tragedy for the guys. Or am I overdramatizing the situation?

Perestroika was an undoubted success for our generation. In fact, we were the first - not only basketball players, but athletes in general - who tasted the joy and experience of a real professional life, decent salaries and attitude towards ourselves. We could compare what we have now and when we played for the USSR national team or our own leading clubs of the Union.

I won’t say that it was better abroad than at home - there you are generally in a different state, in a different world. It was life in two different coordinate systems - literally and figuratively. But our players were very capable, talented - real stars of world basketball: Kievans, Muscovites, Leningraders...

- ...Vilnius people...

- What were the CSKA - Zalgiris matches worth?

- They were heroes...

But their opportunities came too late; it was more difficult for them than for us. Of course, we had our difficulties, but we still became the pioneers of professional sports for domestic players, and they failed to do this for objective reasons. They followed our careers, saw what we could afford... I know many guys, and, in my opinion, they have developed some kind of internal complex...

- It's a shame...

- ...on the footsteps of this train...

“Sabonis once admitted to me: “I’m not afraid of anyone except Gomelsky.”

- As they say, “see Paris and die”...

Nobody wanted to become an NBA champion - just to get into the All Stars Game!

Sasha, is the level of NBA players really much higher than those who also successfully perform in prestigious championships in a number of other countries?

- Money, Sasha, money...

- ...and will absorb both FIBA and ULEB?

This will all end! Of course, on the one hand, it’s a good option, but on the other hand, it’s their own fault: everything will happen as a result of the intractability of the Europeans.

- It was also a terrible match with Puerto Rico...

Of course, well done Gomelsky for surviving all this!

- How did he set you up for victory: did he shout, curse?

- ...they say, as at Stalingrad, that “there is no land for us beyond the Volga”...

- I wonder how such a small person can cope with giants? What keys did he pick for you?

- Reflex - there's no escape...

Sabonis once admitted to me: “I’m not afraid of anyone except Alexander Yakovlevich.”

“We knew: it’s better not to joke with Belostenny”

Many years later, Gomelsky told me that during these three post-victory Olympic days, the basketball players had a terrible drinking binge. So violent that even he felt uneasy, and he threatened Belostenny that he would take away the title of “Honored Master of Sports” for the third time...

Well yes, it was... (smiles). True, I would rather call it general rejoicing...

I return in the evening after the victory - the table is already set, guests of absolutely incomprehensible nationalities, countries, sports are constantly coming...

- The fraternization has begun...

And real fun. People took turns as if in a kaleidoscope: one slept on the sofa in the hall, woke up, another lay down in his place, someone dozed off right in the bathroom...

Gradually, a mountain of used plates and glasses, empty bottles, and forgotten things grew on the floor. The atmosphere was festive and peaceful, but they complained to Gomelsky that we were rowdy...

- Didn’t he participate in the manifestation of general joy?

Wise Gomelsky realized that it was not so easy for him to deal with the newly-crowned Olympic champions.

cope, and made two tactical moves. Firstly, he intercepted another bag of alcohol, handed over, so to speak, from the outside, and locked it in his metal safe, and secondly, he told Belostenny: “Sasha, you were deprived of the “Honored Master of Sports” twice, tomorrow you will be awarded him for the third time. If in half an hour there is no peace and order here, you will not restore your rank.”

We laughed: “Well, what kind of blackmail is this?”, but after half an hour there was no one else in the room and there was perfect cleanliness, as if the maids had come...

- What words did White-walled find?

- Were you afraid?

That’s not the point, it’s just that if he’s set on something, it’s better not to joke with him.

- Curious, have there been situations when things came to a fight between famous basketball players?

Constantly...

- Yes? And what were they quarreling about?

- Has self-awareness awakened?

- ...to rob stores?

- Are these disputes still ongoing?

Well, now the guys are adults and won’t show it in plain sight.

- Will they go to the toilet?

- (Laughs). No, they behave correctly - it’s still a level, but I think they still have so much childhood left in them!

- Sasha, in the opinion of a professional, is Sabonis really a great basketball player?

“My first game in the NBA, I was shocked: we were losing, and suddenly the coach and the best player started fighting...”

Sasha, the NBA was generally something unattainable for a Soviet person. You not only got there, but also proved yourself to be the best. What surprised you the most there?

When I arrived in the USA, my first impression was admiration, but also a little... disappointment...

- What?

- Isn’t an Olympic champion a regalia for them?

No, this is impressive, but still a white man from Europe, especially from the Soviet Union...

- ...among the black beauties...

- What was it - tactics or politics?

There were other unpleasant situations. At the very first game I was shocked: we were losing, and suddenly Michael Fratello and Dominique Wilkins started... fighting... Imagine, the coach and the best player! They are separated, they curse at each other... Maybe, I think this is an accident, but a minute later Moses Malone, known for his extremely aggressive style of play in attack, grappled with Fratello. This is the situation...

- Funny...

Many different stories were told about Moses Malone: the guy was born in Pittsburgh, Virginia, in a poor family, grew up without a father, his mother locked the refrigerator so that he would not eat all the supplies... Moses spoke very bad English - such Negro language slang that almost nothing could be understood - but he was extremely sociable. For me, Malone was an idol, a star, it was inconvenient for me to avoid communicating with him - so funny things happened.

And he played well! At the very beginning, when the guys were getting ready for individual training before training camp, Malone called me: “Let’s play you one-on-one.” He is, of course, a center, but I was in good shape, I was quicker and beat him. Moses looked at me with respect (they said they brought a normal guy), recognized me and then always defended me. And his wife helped mine a lot - in the first year of my contract, Alla was pregnant, our eldest daughter was born in America...

-You didn’t become a racist in America?

“After the anesthesia, I woke up all vomited. My arm was in some kind of heavy cast. I tried to lift it, but it wouldn’t rise. I wanted to get up, but I couldn’t...”

In America you experienced a terrible trauma. In Yuri Krikun’s biographical book about you, one of the chapters begins with the words: “Volkov came to his senses covered in vomit. He couldn’t move his arms, he was paralyzed...”. What happened to you, Sasha?

I decided to have surgery. I imagined it something like this: they cut something off, took it out, sewed it up, and you went home.

I arrive at the clinic and feel that I am starting to worry, some incomprehensible anxiety is growing...

Early in the morning I was taken to the operating room, laid on the table...

- Did you experience shock?

Of course, this is the first operation in my life. I couldn't even imagine what was happening...

-...such helplessness?

A week after the operation, I tried to walk, but I couldn’t (running was out of the question). Then I had to learn to walk again...

Thank God, the second surgical intervention was easier.

- Was there despair?

I remember at some point I said to myself: “I need to calculate how much I earned under the contract, and, probably, it’s time to think about how I will live further... without basketball.”

Fortunately, I met Lesha Ovchinnikov, an emigrant from Leningrad, a devotee of yoga, well acquainted with oriental medicine... Thanks to him!..

Did the American basketball system throw you out or did they tell you: “Sasha, don’t worry. We will fully pay for your treatment, everything will be fine”?

“Sometimes I wanted to use physical force towards someone in the Cabinet of Ministers”

Several years ago, Alexander Volkov became the Minister of Sports of Ukraine, which was perceived ambiguously: how could such an intelligent, bright, charming person become an official? As far as I know, this position brought you nothing but disappointment and heartache...

Dima, I will stand up for the officials - there are many smart and bright people among them.

- I have no doubt...

But this really came as a surprise to me...

- Who proposed to take a high position?

I won’t lie, it was hard, there were moments when I was humiliated (at least, so it seemed to me), when I felt out of place. Yes, something worked out, but let’s just say I wasn’t happy...

And what is it like for a creative, basketball-loving person who recently played to suddenly sit in a boring ministerial chair? We have to make decisions, sign mountains of papers...

It's difficult, of course. I am grateful to the assistants and in general to everyone who did not set me up, although this could have been done simply.

Well, of course, of course...

- And how did you check?

Some bosses spoke very specific texts!

- Which?

- Did you have any desire to answer in equally strong terms?

It arose, of course, not only verbally - sometimes I wanted to use physical force...

Yes! Thank God I restrained myself. In response, he simply retorted and put forward counter-arguments. If he felt he was right, he tried to defend it.

So there were both good and bad moments, but time passed, and I gained a lot of experience, met many interesting people, saw life from an unusual side...

- ...from behind the scenes...

And of course, I am grateful to Leonid Danilovich for calling me there. I don't regret for a second that I made this decision.

- Can you call yourself an accomplished person, an established personality, or is everything still ahead?

He was a brilliant coach, and now he has become the president of CSKA. Everyone said: “Well, Gomelsky won’t let anyone in there, he’ll run everything himself.”

- Did you let me in?

That is why to say to yourself: they say, I have already developed as a person is a big mistake.

"Outstanding NBA players earn 20-30 million dollars a year. Michael Jordan - 60 million"

I’m not asking if you’re a wealthy person - I think this question is tactless and indecent - but is it true that there’s a lot of money in the NBA?

Huge! In my opinion, the contracts there are too big.

- No...

One person. You'll never guess...

- Who?

Chinese Yao Ming.

- How did he manage to do this?

- How much can American basketball superstars actually earn per year today?

Outstanding players - 20-30 million dollars each, Michael Jordan - 60 million (a monument to him was erected in front of the Chicago Sports Palace "United Center" during his lifetime)...

And what, as a rule, do they use these incredible amounts of money for? Are there any successful businessmen among basketball players?

- What do spendthrifts spend on - on casinos, on women?

They have 10 cars, two or three houses, apartments in different countries of the world. Much is given to relatives - this is the custom. Black people hold family values in high esteem, and there are usually a lot of relatives and friends of relatives. The whole clan needs to live, so they help each other when someone escapes poverty.

By the way, it’s not for nothing that basketball players in the States used to have to spend four or five years in college after school and before their professional career. During this time, they developed as individuals, as athletes, and managed to understand whether basketball was worth making their profession or whether it was just a hobby.

- Now our basketball players also receive considerable contracts - are they going crazy or?..

This is a different story. Our players are... (looks for a word).

- I think I hit a nerve with you...

- Thank you, is that enough?..

And this is a tragedy, because the athlete has no desire, no incentive to move forward. There were times in our clubs when we owed players several months' wages, and if they played poorly, we could not make a claim against them because we felt like debtors. And they came out onto the site as if they were doing you a favor. Once in the locker room I told them: “Guys, you will remember these times when you will have money, but you will receive your salary on time, but you will lose the habit of playing at full strength and will no longer realize yourself 100 percent. Separate the concepts of “money” and “professionalism”: either leave big sport altogether, or give your all.”

And so it happened: today salaries and bonuses are paid on time, but they can no longer give their all in the game...

Sasha, are there any bright names now - at the level of the stars of past years - or has the transition period leveled off their skills?

- Your tongue won't turn?

You said that you didn’t feel happy in the chair of the sports minister. Well, now do you feel like a fully realized, calm, confident person?

Born on March 29, 1964 in Omsk. Father - Volkov Anatoly Alexandrovich. Mother - Volkova Valentina Yakovlevna. Wife – Akhmetova Alla Restyamovna. Daughters: Anastasia, Alexandra.

Sasha, who was born in an ordinary Omsk maternity hospital on Maslennikova Street, had average anthropometric data: with a height of 53 centimeters, he weighed 3 kilograms 900 grams. It will be years before the world's leading sports publications call him Red Gulliver, the Hawk from Lviv Square, the Italian Express. In the meantime, it would be a stretch to call him a candidate for future giants.

A few months after the birth of their son, the Volkov family moved to Chernigov. Sasha's parents were athletic people; They had a special passion for basketball, thanks to which they met back in 1960. At that time, they worked at the Omsk machine-building plant "Polyot", which in the secret annals of the KGB was listed as numbered and was actually an aviation plant. The defense industry did not have its own gym, and the basketball players went to train at the engine builders. There were many sections, but only one hall, so the men's and women's teams trained together. This is how fate brought together the future parents of the future champion, who got married a year later.

The Volkovs' firstborn grew up as a bully. Since his leading role was unconditionally recognized by all his comrades, his parents called their son nothing more than the chieftain of the gnomes. This was the first “honorary title” in the life of 5-year-old Shurka.

As we know, people are not born brave. Therefore, Anatoly Alexandrovich cultivated the strength of spirit in the boy from childhood. In the evenings, the doorway in the kitchen turned into a hockey goal, and Sasha turned into a goalkeeper. And although the puck was plastic, it “beat,” according to the young goalkeeper’s recollections, “quite decently,” especially when it hit the face. But my father did not allow me to wear a mask. He convinced Sasha that “you can’t find courage on the road and you can’t exchange it for a knife in the yard.” His brother also agreed with Anatoly Alexandrovich. On weekends, he would arrange fist fights for his nephew with the neighborhood boys. Moreover, he did not select the weak.

Basketball entered Sasha’s life only in the 3rd grade. Until the age of 7, the object of his affections were boxing gloves, then he raved about hockey - he stayed up late at the TV, watching the game of the legendary trio Mikhailov - Petrov - Kharlamov. Gullivers' game was broadcast infrequently in those years. Therefore, the portraits of black NBA stars, which sports publications sometimes published, evoked a special inner awe. The father did not push his son to make a choice in favor of this or that sport, but he gave him a basketball just in case.

Did Sasha take his first steps towards basketball Olympus during basketball training under the guidance of Alla Vergun at the Chernigov Children and Youth Sports School? 1 (1973–1980), continued his journey at the Kiev city sports boarding school. Since 1981, Volkov became a player of the Kyiv “Builder”, and after another 2 years he won his first medals - bronze at the USSR Championship and silver at the World Youth Championship.

On the eve of the 1985 European Championship, Alexander Gomelsky was replaced as head coach of the country's first team by Vladimir Obukhov. The testing of the Obukhov team took place in Spain.

Best of the day

The match with the Spaniards started as usual: with two Gullivers - Sabonis and Tkachenko, who were supplied with balls by Khomichius, Kurtinaitis and Tarakanov. But the five that terrified Europe behaved too academically. There would be some adjustments to be made here, but Gomelsky’s experience was not enough for Obukhov. The moment came when it was almost impossible to change the course of the match - the gap in the score during the match sometimes reached 30 points.

The old-timers almost in an ultimatum form demanded to change tactics: instead of a second center, the attack should be supported by a high-speed striker, who, according to the leaders, was young Volkov. But Obukhov only gave in half. So, in the first match of the next commercial tournament against the Czechs, Andrei Lopatov entered the court in the starting five. And there would have been no happiness, but misfortune helped - in one of the first attacks Lopatov broke his finger. Here, like it or not, it was Sasha’s turn. Obukhov released Volkov onto the court and froze. The newcomer tightly shut down Krapilyak, the Czechs’ best striker, and also scored 20 points. Volkov started the next game in the starting five and never dropped out of it again in his life.

The team began the European Championship in Karlsruhe, where teams from Yugoslavia, Spain, France, Poland and Romania played. The French and Romanian bastions were taken with little loss - 118:103 and 100:85, respectively. Now, in order to assert themselves, it was necessary to defeat the Yugoslav team, in which Drazan Petrovich was beginning to shine. This match, to some extent, became a turning point in Volkov’s fate. In one of the rebounds, while reaching for the ball, he accidentally knocked out Nakich’s front teeth. And the Yugoslavs wavered. We eased the pressure a little, changed the distance a little. And they also lost a little - only 8 points, but they lost.

Then, one after another, the teams of Poland, Bulgaria, Italy and, in the final, Czechoslovakia were defeated. An important detail: here, in Stuttgart, Alexander Volkov became not only the European champion, but for the first time in his life he entered the symbolic team of the continent. Shaking his hand at Sheremetyevo-1, Gomelsky said: “Well done. Although I probably wouldn’t risk betting on you...”

“The Builder” spent the 1985 and 1986 seasons neither shaky nor shaky, and who knows what Alexander’s future fate would have been, but then he was unexpectedly invited to a cup of tea by the then coach of SKA Kyiv Zurab Khromayev (now in charge of the entire Ukrainian basketball industry). Ironically, Khromaev lived in the same building as Alexander’s wife Alla.

Khromaev has already wooed Sasha into his team more than once, but if earlier the conversation was with a student, now it’s with a pre-conscript. That evening, as the main argument, Sasha was presented with “heavy artillery” in the person of the head coach of the national team and CSKA, Alexander Yakovlevich Gomelsky. But the main basketball “general” behaved surprisingly modestly, talked more and more about the weather, and not otherwise - he had his own plans for the striker. And a week later, CSKA coach Selikhov called Volkov. “Get ready,” Yuri Gennadievich did not order, but asked, “you are going to serve the Motherland.” It was stupid to hide.

Within a couple of weeks, the strong-willed newcomer became the undisputed leader of the team. And the best in CSKA most often became the best in the country. Volkov once and for all turned this “most often” into an axiom. It was in CSKA that he played the final of the USSR Championship for the first time against Zalgiris. Sasha remembers how the generals “pumped up” them in 1987: the army should not lose to “dissidents.” But she lost, and Sasha had to wait another whole year for her first allied gold medal; it happened in 1988.

The Soviet basketball team flew to the 88 Olympics in Seoul for victory. And despite failure already in the opening match with the Yugoslavs, they made it to one of the four best teams. The semi-finals were already awaiting the Americans, who throughout the Olympic tournament had consistently defeated their opponents with a gap of 30–40 points.

The Americans weren't just waiting for us. For 16 years, more than one generation of black “Atlanteans” dreamed of returning the favor to our team: everyone remembers how in Munich, 3 seconds before the end of the final match, Edeshko’s golden pass across the entire court and Belov’s throw put the founders of basketball into a trance. In Montreal, we didn’t make it to the face-to-face meeting, and then big politics intervened in the Olympic movement.

The best national collegiate team in US history to ever play in a FIBA tournament was tasked with taking revenge. American leaders Danny Manning and David Robinson deliberately postponed signing multimillion-dollar contracts in the NBA in order to get Olympic gold. They were assisted under the shield by the unsurpassed JR Reed. This trio, having dashed the hopes of all competitors under the ring, hoped to rule the roost in the semi-finals. But Sabonis and Volkov stood in their way. Arvydas made 13 rebounds, and Volkov simply “ate” the legendary Manning, not allowing him to score a single point throughout the match.

The final match of the USSR - Yugoslavia Olympics was broadcast by all the leading television companies in the world. Those who believed that the Yugoslavs entered the game demoralized by the Soviet semi-final were mistaken - they do not throw out the white flag one step away from the highest step of the podium. “Yugi” took the lead from the first seconds of the match: 6:0, 20:10, 24:12... And perhaps the Yugoslavs were already mentally trying on gold medals, but then Sabonis caught the game. Over the next 4 minutes, the USSR team scores 9 points, the Yugoslavs score none. Their advantage is melting before our eyes, along with their hopes, which are finally ruined by Dran Petrovic, who went out alone to an empty ring and did not score a slam-dunk. 76:63. This is a victory. Alexander Volkov is an Olympic champion!

Volkov became the champion of the Soviet Union for the second time in 1989, when “Stroitel” defeated “Zhal-giris” in a historical confrontation. The fate of the gold medals was decided in the first return match, when in Kaunas Volkov's winning throw tipped the scales in favor of the Kiev team less than one tenth of a second before the end of the match. But the judges wavered: the main referee of the match, Mikhail Grigoriev, canceled the previously counted goal. The Kyivians lost the overtime, and flatly refused the third game and flew to Kyiv - somewhere there should be a limit to the arbitrariness of the judges!

“It must,” they decided in Moscow. After carefully watching the video of the match, the USSR Basketball Federation and the State Sports Committee Board decided unanimously: Volkov threw before the siren. And if so, Kyiv should be the first!

Obviously, Volkov’s future sporting fate was decided in a friendly match with the great Atlanta Hawks. The tour of the American professionals, who won in Tbilisi and Vilnius, ended in Moscow, where, naturally, they were given the “last fight.” And with the Luzhniki stands crowded, Sasha Volkov created the “eighth wonder of the world” - easily, as in training, he scored 37 points in 40 minutes of the match. Fantastic! It is not known for certain, of course, but perhaps it was at that very second that Ted Turner put aside a suitcase tightly stuffed with green bills to buy a successful Russian.

True, the Atlanta boss will use it only in a year and a half. Already the third game in the NBA against the Boston Celtic became Sasha’s first big victory. He played more than a third of the match against Larry Bird himself and scored his first two points. After this meeting, Fratello realized: the Russian grasps his strategy well, can implement the setup for the match and enjoys the respect of the judges. Since then, Sasha has never spent less than 15 minutes on the court in a single match, got 5-6 points per game for the team, and at the end of the season became the best in shots from behind the 6-meter line.

The moment came when Fratello shook his hand: “You are an NBA player and worth much more than the two hundred thousand dollars that Turner paid the Soviets for you.” But it’s only smooth on paper. Sasha finished his first season in the NBA with deep cracks in his hands, on injections and enthusiasm. The doctors warned: “The injury is serious: you need a cast, you need rest.” Volkov shrugged it off and went as part of the USSR national team to Argentina for the world crown. He received the silver medals “complete” with fifty painkilling injections, on which he lasted the entire tournament. It’s clear that the holiday didn’t work out. Upon returning to Atlanta, Volkov could not even lift a cup of tea with his hands. When greeting, he hid his hand behind his back - any touch to it would reverberate in his head like a sheaf of sparks.

I had to lie down on the operating table. They cut out cartilage from his groin and inserted his hands into the crack, tightening them with a special system. This is not about basketball - it’s time to think about a wheelchair: the long-suffering hand was not a sight for the faint of heart. But after 10 days the hand came back to life. And everything would be fine, but then my legs gave out...

Only a year later, Sasha timidly crossed the threshold of the club. Half the players and the coach were new. And this meant that for the second time he became a newcomer in Atlanta, who was unlikely to have a place in the sun. But then the leader of the Hawks, the great Dominique Wilkins, was seriously injured. This was an opportunity. And Volkov, who had not played for more than a year, took a risk. The eyes of the player and coach met only for a moment. They believed each other. Volkov entered the game. I walked in as if there had never been a year's break. And the attack music began. No, Volkov did not become first violin. He became an orchestra, voicing all the “roles”. Rebound, pass, shot, block - it seemed like two teams were already playing for Atlanta. Statistically, he became the best. In this meeting, in the next...

But money played a role here. A new generation of yesterday’s backups, led by the still unknown Shaquille O’Neal, has entered the forefront of American basketball. Volkov had a new contract in his hands, but Sasha decided to go to Europe - Italian and Spanish clubs had been following him for a long time.

“Prime time” comes in every person’s life. For Volkov, it coincided with an Italian business trip, where in the 1992/93 season he played for Panasonic from the picturesque town of Reggio. Sasha, as if by order, time after time ensured victories for the southerners in important fights with the North. And by the middle of the season, victory for the northerners was clearly associated with the eighth number of Panasonic, which received the capacious nickname “Express” in the press.

There were no signs of trouble. “Reggio de Calabria” confidently rushed at full speed to its first peak. And then, in an ordinary game with Roma, which was then identified with the Croatian player Dino Rajo, Volkov “out of the blue” received a knee injury. The operation cost him two months of rehabilitation, and the club lost first place. The team slipped to 6th place, and all that its leader, who had not really recovered, managed to do was help reach the semi-finals, where the troublemakers in Treviso were stopped by the local Benetton.

But courage and perseverance were to be rewarded. And the sports gods gave Sasha the opportunity to go through another basketball path - “from the Varangians to the Greeks.”

Perhaps the Hellenes were the first to turn the well-known axiom on its head: “Strong clubs make a strong team.” Their club surge was a consequence. But one way or another, in 1993, the teams of Yanakopoulos and Kokolis were clear trendsetters in European basketball, gathering the best under their banner. And to be convinced of this, it was enough to look at the application list of the Athenians. In the performances of “Panathinaikos” the main roles were played by the best center in Europe, Yugoslav Stojko Vrankovic, a magnificent point guard, the champion of Seoul, the Estonian Tiit Sokk, and the unsurpassed Greek Nikos Galis. In such a company, which was also supported by Americans from the NBA, Volkov, it seemed, could only take first place in alphabetical order. But Sasha thought differently.

Volkov’s modesty does not allow this, but we still note: the European press wrote that with all the abundance of stars, only Volkov could have won gold for Panathinaikos in the regular season, if the club had fewer soloists and Kosta Politis commanded less loudly, who led the Athenians in the middle of the season. And here too I had to limit myself to “bronze”.

But Volkov wasn’t going to Greece for her. Which means it’s a fight again. But now with his shadow - that’s what fate decided, exchanging him with the Yugoslav Zarko Pospal. The castling, invented by Kokalis, once again radically changed Volkov’s life. The season at Olympiacos will be the last in his long sports career.

But Sasha will find out about this only a year later, when she wins silver medals with Olympiacos in the final match of the European Champions Cup. It was in the match with Real, after a collision with Arlauskas, that Volkov felt as if a grenade had exploded in his back into hundreds of pieces. And he had to stop and ask for a replacement, but the hand surgery didn’t teach him anything. Before the last game of the Greek regular championship, Olympiacos became the champion, and Volkov became disabled. He was brought home from the hall on a stretcher. The opinion of the medical council was categorical: basketball was over. A full life, by the way, too. It’s good if after a year or two you manage to take a vertical position...

The fate of Nikolai Ostrovsky persistently knocked on the door. Overnight, Volkov became a regular at American clinics. The doctors shrugged their shoulders, suggesting to be patient - it took time to restore the nerves in the spine responsible for muscle reflexes...

...We will not name the person who performed a small medical miracle in the summer of 1996, so as not to draw unnecessary attention to his today’s dedicated service to Russian sports. “We will be treated by hunger. During fasting, blood will eat all the harmful particles that have accumulated in your body,” the guest told Volkov. “Do you agree?” And Sasha took a risk.

Believe me, he hardly had any idea what he was getting into. The first series of 25 days of hunger strike seemed relatively easy. The second – 60 days, of which the week is “dry” – is already for the Guinness Book of Records. For these 60 days, newspapers and television disappeared from Volkov’s life, and the indicator of human communication was approaching zero. Walks, massage, sauna, massage, walks. On the 40th day, he felt the taste of a sip of water... As a result, something happened that, according to all the laws of medicine, simply could not happen - the back pain disappeared. Sasha realized: you can seriously think about basketball.

Then Sasha opens his Basketball Support Fund in Kyiv. The dying game is receiving a new impetus for development in Ukraine, which Volkov has been supporting for several years in the Kyiv basketball club he created.

Volkov personally stood at the helm of the new basketball ship, which from the first day was destined to become the flagship of the Super League. And the team fulfilled all the tasks assigned to it: on the first try it won the gold medals of the Ukrainian championship and became the base for the national team. But Ukrainian open spaces were not enough for Volkov. In 1999, together with his friend Šarūnas Marčiulionis, he launched the North European Basketball League (SEBL).

The phone rang at dawn - the President of Ukraine L. Kuchma invited him to his place. He invited Volkov to lead the sport and guaranteed 100% support. However, Alexander was not a minister for long: after 159 days, Volkov was offered to vacate his chair due to the reorganization. He returned to his basketball kingdom, the only one of all where the king does not need to be played by his retinue.

Alexander Volkov - Honored Master of Sports of the USSR (1988), Olympic champion (1988), most valuable player of the 1992 Olympics, silver medalist of the world championships (1986, 1990), European champion (1985), silver (1987) and bronze (1989) medalist of the European Championships, two-time champion of the USSR (1988, 1989), silver (1987) and bronze (1983, 1984) medalist of the USSR championships, best player of the Soviet Union (1989), champion of Greece (1985), member of the USSR national team (1984–1991) ), CIS national team (1992), Ukrainian national team (1998), symbolic world team (1986, 1990).

Member of the executive committee of FIBA Europe (since 2002), member of the executive committee of the NOC of Ukraine (since 2002), vice-president of the Basketball Federation of Ukraine (since 2001), president of the Basketball Development Fund of Ukraine (since 2002), honorary president of the BC "Kyiv". Awarded the Order of the Badge of Honor (1988).

Lives in Kyiv.

Hello Sanya!
Siduna 04.06.2008 10:44:41

Hello A.V. A former colleague from Youth Sports School-1 in Zhitomir, Alyosha Sidun, is writing to you. You probably don’t remember me, but I’ve been wanting to write you a message for a long time. As soon as I see you on the TV screen, I immediately remember our youth, especially the competitions in Minsk in winter. How we, two teams from Zhitomir and Chernigov, lived in a class at a Minsk school. If you have time ,respond to your former colleague.Thank you.

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