Nationality Russian Name Alexander Belov Listed height 6 ft 7 in (2.01 m) Role Basketball player | Pro career 1967–1978 Position Center Number 14 | |
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Born 9 November 1951Leningrad, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union ( 1951-11-09 ) 1967–1978 Spartak Leningrad (Soviet Union) Died October 3, 1978, Saint Petersburg, Russia NBA draft 1975, Utah Jazz (Round: 10 / Pick: 161) Similar Sergei Belov, Aleksandr Boloshev, Ivan Dvorny | ||
Alexander Belov after the match - head coach RLA (Moscow, Russia)
Alexander Alexandrovich Belov (Александр Александрович Белов) (November 9, 1951 – October 3, 1978) was a Soviet basketball player who won the gold medal with the senior Soviet Union national basketball team at the 1972 Summer Olympic Games, scoring the game-winning basket in the gold medal game. Belov died from a very rare disease – cardiac sarcoma, in 1978, at the age of 26. He was named one of FIBA's 50 Greatest Players in 1991. He was enshrined into the FIBA Hall of Fame in 2007.
Contents
- Alexander Belov after the match head coach RLA Moscow Russia
- Club career
- 1975 NBA Draft
- Soviet Union national team
- References
Club career
Born in Leningrad, Belov was the star player of Spartak Leningrad, leading the club to the Soviet Union League title in 1975, and to three European-wide 2nd-tier level FIBA European Cup Winners' Cup finals, in 1971, 1973, and 1975, winning the last two. In 2016, the club was renamed to BC Kondrashin Belov, in his honor.
1975 NBA Draft
In the tenth round of the 1975 NBA draft, the New Orleans Jazz selected Belov with the 161st pick of the draft; like the vast majority of Soviet players drafted into North American sports leagues, he would never end up playing for the team that drafted him. It would not be until 1989, that the first Soviet player, Lithuanian born Šarūnas Marčiulionis, would play in the NBA.
Soviet Union national team
Belov won four gold medals with the senior Soviet Union national team. The highlight of his basketball career came when he hit the game-winning shot in the 1972 Summer Olympic Games gold medal game.