Alexander Gomelsky - biography

Alexander Yakovlevich Gomelsky (Russian: Гомельский, Александр Яковлевич) (January 18, 1928 in Kronstadt, USSR – August 16, 2005 in Moscow, Russia) was a great Soviet and Russian basketball coach.

Gomelsky began his coaching career in 1948 in Leningrad with LGS Spartak. In 1953 he became the coach of ASK Riga, an army club, leading the team to five Soviet league titles and three consecutive European Cups from 1958 to 1960. In 1969 he was appointed coach of CSKA Moscow until 1980, leading the club to 9 Soviet Union national league championships (1970-1974, 1976-1979), 2 Soviet union national cups (1972-1973) and on European Champions cup title in 1971, leading the club to two more European cup finals in 1970 and 1973.

Gomelsky coached the Soviet Union national team for almost 30 years, leading them to 6 European Championships titles (1963, 1965, 1967, 1969, 1979, and 1981), 2 World Championships title (1967 and 1982) and the Olympic gold medal in 1988. He was the Soviet national team coach in 1972, and was expected to coach the team at the 1972 Summer Olympics, but the KGB confiscated his passport fearing that, since Gomelsky was Jewish, that he would defect to Israel. The Soviet team, with Vladimir Kondrashin as coach, won their first Olympic gold medal that year, on a controversial call against the United States team.

In his later years, he was president of the CSKA Moscow. He also coached in Spain, France and the United States. In 1995 he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. In 2007, he was enshrined in the FIBA Hall of Fame. The Euroleague annual coach of the year award is named after him, as well as CSKA Universal Sports Hall.