There is no more famous and respected person in Ukrainian basketball. Volkov's authority seems unshakable from the outside. Fans loved him and continue to adore him. Volkov's name is a kind of pass for Ukrainian basketball to the European arena. He is constantly in motion and searching for ways to develop this game in Ukraine.
Kyiv "Stroitel" of the second half of the 80s was a good team. So much so that the Kyivites could afford to challenge recognized authorities - "Zalgiris" and CSKA. And one of the leading players of "Stroitel" was the owner of the number five jersey - Alexander Volkov.
He was regularly called up to play for the USSR national team, and in 1986 he was forced to move to the Moscow army club. Only for one season, after which he returned to Kyiv, and "Stroitel" began its golden age. In 1988, the Kyivites fell just short of the championship title, and in 1989 one of the most famous finals in the history of the USSR championships took place, in which Volkov, with a long-range shot in the last second, brought victory to "Stroitel". The protests of "Zalgiris" and the referee's mistake, who failed to verify that the shot was valid (according to basketball rules, a ball thrown before the final siren counts even if it goes through the hoop after it), were in vain. The championship title rolled off to Kyiv, and years later, the famous "Stroitel" center Alexander Belostenny, who now lives in Germany, jokingly said that he would have torn off Volkov's head (and not only) for daring to shoot at the hoop at such a crucial moment. After all, basketball has a clear hierarchy, and the recognized long-range shooter for the Kyivites at that time was Andrey Shaptala (in the current championship he coached the Bila Tserkva "Rosava"). It was to him that the ball should have been given for the shot. But Volkov decided otherwise and became a hero.
However, he and his USSR national teammates became heroes a little earlier - in 1988 at the Olympic Games in Seoul. The traditionally undisputed favorite - the US team - was beaten by Volkov, Sabonis, Kurtinaitis, Belostenny, Miglinieks, Marciulionis, Khomichus, Tarakanov and other masters, who forever entered the hall of fame of Soviet basketball. Our players performed a real feat, which is still recalled with nostalgia. Moreover, they remained ordinary people. After the first game of the Olympic tournament, Kurtinaitis, now working in Azerbaijan, promised to get blind drunk if the USSR won the Games in Seoul. And despite the fact that for three years before that he had not consumed alcohol at all, he kept his word. And the team unanimously supported him in this.
The victory in the 1989 USSR championship became a farewell tour for Volkov in the union championship. Ted Turner, one of the main founders of the Goodwill Games, decided to invite the first Soviet basketball player to the NBA and offered the 25-year-old Alexander a contract with the Atlanta Hawks, of which he was the owner.
In Atlanta, the Volkov family (Alexander and Alla) settled quite firmly and after some time acquired their own house.
"In 1989 we didn't have children yet," the basketball player recalls. "When we came to the States and rented an apartment, we were overjoyed - absolutely everything suited us in this new life. But after some time, we noticed that people in whose society we constantly moved (mostly Atlanta players and their wives) lived in their own houses. Gradually, they began to unobtrusively hint that, like, a person with an NBA club contract, by his status, is obliged to live in his own dwelling. Renting an apartment is not the level.
Soon alarming news began to come from the homeland, and I had a feeling that the USSR, where our relatives and close ones remained, was sliding into chaos, and everything there would end in catastrophe. That's how it seemed to us from afar.
Not surprisingly, about a year after arriving in Atlanta, when Alla was already pregnant, the decision to buy a house finally matured. Moreover,
this, as we were explained, is much more profitable than living in someone else's apartment: rent money goes down the drain, instead of becoming payments for real estate purchased on installments. The house was bought typically American - a basement with utility rooms, kitchen, dining room, and on the second floor - bedrooms. Plus a piece of land and a garage. True, its level was still above average. After all, we settled in a prestigious settlement, where mostly wealthy athletes and middle-class people lived. The neighbor opposite was the general manager of Atlanta. The settlement lived amicably. At any moment one could turn to neighbors with a request to look after children or the house."
In Atlanta, the Volkovs remained even after Alexander finished his performances in the USA and moved to Italy. For example, during the Summer Olympic Games of 1996, which were held right in Atlanta, the house of the Ukrainian basketball player, who at that time was not playing due to a serious back injury, had 20-30 guests daily - Ukrainians, Russians, Lithuanians, Americans. And Volkov was doing the cooking: right on the street he set up a large table, a grill, and treated them to trout that he had caught himself. He smoked it, cooked fish soup and, by his own admission, got great pleasure. Especially when they asked for seconds. In Atlanta, the Volkovs also celebrated the arrival of the new, 21st century.
Alexander quickly fit into the new life, although for many of our athletes life abroad, for a number of reasons, turned out to be joyless.
"The main stumbling block for our advancement in the West is the language barrier. Sometimes careers even break down. I, however, believe that the most ideal option for someone who is going to a foreign country is to learn the language at home. But if it doesn't work out at first, you shouldn't get discouraged, and most importantly, don't panic. For a start, you should turn off all Russian-language TV channels at home, persistently ignore newspapers in your native language at kiosks. Communicate with the locals as much as possible, clinging to every new word, and keep the TV that doesn't speak our language constantly on. And have patience.
I arrived in America already speaking conversational English quite well, but when I sat down in front of the TV, I understood nothing. This went on for about six months, until one fine day I suddenly realized: why, damn it, I understand everything!
After the States, the Volkovs had to adapt to a new environment several more times. First in Italy, then in Greece, and after all that in Ukraine, which had changed greatly since Alexander left the country in 1989.
"Life in other countries, of course, left its mark on my worldview and mentality," Volkov said in one interview. "For instance, in the States you can create your own little world and close yourself off in it. Do whatever your heart desires there, and it won't affect your relationship with the outside world, which will gladly take you back as soon as you wish. And no one will dare violate your right to choose.
In Italy, especially in the south of the country where we lived, it's the opposite. There, people around you won't accept you if you're not like them. At first I was shocked when at any hour of the day or night, without calling ahead, some cheerful and noisy person would barge into the house and, ignoring the fact that you don't understand him at all, would passionately start telling you something. The funniest part is that he himself considered this a sign of respect for you. And, you know, my wife and I somehow imperceptibly got drawn in, accepted the rules of the game and became "Italians." When we dropped in on someone, we saw that we really almost made people happy.
In Greece everything was different again - something between the States and southern Italy. Athens is a big city where life was somewhat similar to the reality of those years that we didn't want to return to. But the large Russian community plus Orthodoxy still left room for a private world."
Volkov's career was cut short long before the basketball player himself could have made the decision to retire. In Greece, his back pain worsened (a herniated disc - an occupational disease of basketball players). So much so that, according to the player himself, at times he did not want to live - the pain was so severe.
He could have become an invalid when his Greek employers turned their backs on him, but he pulled through. And at 36, he returned to the court, already the president of BC Kiev, and played a number of very good matches for his own club. At the same time, Alexander liked to tell how during his time as chairman of the State Sports Committee he put on quite a few extra kilos and caught up with his friend Sabonis, who is a head taller than him. But he soon regained optimal shape.
Volkov is a very active person. He abhors a quiet rest; he would almost certainly prefer the opportunity to go fishing and partially return to a carefree childhood over lying on the beach. But after that, he wants to move mountains.
Volkov's appearance in Ukraine was the moment from which one can date a new era in the development of domestic basketball. The organization in Kiev of a club with an absolutely new style of work, the invitation of the celebrated Olympic champions of Seoul Kurtinaitis and Miglinieks to work with him improved the image of basketball. And the North European Basketball League, created in co-authorship with Marciulionis, which firmly entered the European calendar for several years, helped Kiev and Ukraine feel like a part of Europe, not a stone lying by the roadside.
"I don't claim to be a lone messiah. And hardly anyone could. The point is different - I have many like-minded friends, together with whom we managed to achieve some success. The Alexander Volkov Foundation has been created and is gaining momentum, under the auspices of which there are a student league and a children's basketball league in Kiev. Yes, not everything works out right away and the way we want. Some dreams that seemed easily achievable shattered against the realities of life.
At the same time, I believe that my brief tenure as chairman of the State Sports Committee (or Minister of Sports, as this position is also called) is a unique opportunity granted to me by fate. This experience gave me the opportunity to significantly broaden my horizons, look at power from the inside, try to understand the worldview and the nature of the actions of officials, which often contradict normal logic and common sense."
One of Volkov's recent feats was his tremendous work in organizing and holding in Kiev the first All-Star Game under the auspices of FIBA. It is even said that it was Volkov who made the proposal to the International Basketball Federation to hold such a star weekend in the capital of Ukraine, which would be somewhat similar to the traditional All-Star Game in the NBA.
On March 16, two teams took to the floor of the Kiev Palace of Sports - Europe and the rest of the world, which included the strongest basketball players who performed in the FIBA EuroLeague. Thanks to the patronage of Alexander Volkov, Kiev briefly became the capital of European basketball.
"At the end of summer, discussing the EuroLeague format at the FIBA Executive Committee, my colleagues and I touched upon the topic of the 'All-Star Game.' The question was not only about what it should be like, but also who would take on its organization. There were many willing. And I, so to speak, just in case, proposed the candidacy of Kiev. Upon returning home, we reserved the Palace of Sports for a specific date, enlisted the support of the media and the leadership of the national federation, received the go-ahead from the founders of BC Kiev, and set about developing the match program. When the question of holding the game became more concrete, we submitted our plan to FIBA. Perhaps it was the most aggressive (in a good sense), and the leaders of the International Federation settled on our capital."