Former Soviet basketball great Sergei Belov dies
Key player helped the Soviets to the gold medal at the 1972 Munich Olympics, scoring 20 points in the famous 51-50 win over the US
Former Soviet basketball great and Olympic gold medallist Sergei Belov has died at 69.
His death was announced by CSKA Moscow, the team he played with for 13 seasons. The club says Belov died yesterday in the Ural Mountains city of Perm. It did not give a cause.
Belov helped the Soviets to the gold medal at the 1972 Munich Olympics, scoring 20 points in the famous 51-50 win over the United States in the final. The shooting guard also won three Olympic bronze medals and two world championship titles.
Belov lit the Olympic cauldron at the 1980 Games in Moscow and coached the Russian national team in 1993-99.
Belov won 11 titles with CSKA Moscow and later coached the club for three years, leading it to two titles. In 1992, he became the first international player inducted in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. He was inducted into basketball’s international Hall of Fame in 2007.