Aleksandr Belostennyy(1959-2010)
Aleksandr Belostennyy is a Soviet basketball player. Honored Master of Sports of the USSR, Olympic champion, World champion, three-time European champion, two-time USSR champion, winner of the Spartakiad of the Peoples of the USSR.
Belostennyy was born in the city of Odessa (Ukrainian SSR) and started playing basketball there. The eighth-grader Sasha shot up in height from 182 to 202 cm in a year, demonstrated a clever technically competent game and soon made the experts talk about himself as a promising center. Belostennyy was included in the youth team of the country and in 1975 became the champion, and in 1976 - the silver medalist of the European Championship. In the same year, the 17-year-old basketball player was invited to the Kiev "Stroitel", with whom he parted for the next 14 years only once, when in 1979 he was drafted into the army and played in CSKA (Moscow). With CSKA, Belostennyy became the champion of the USSR for the first time, and in the Kiev "Stroitel" he eventually became the team captain, its undisputed leader and indisputable authority.
In 1977, Belostennyy was invited to the national team of the USSR. Fearless, never discouraged, a self-confident player - he firmly settled in the national team, in which he played until 1992.
Belostennyy was born in the city of Odessa (Ukrainian SSR) and started playing basketball there. The eighth-grader Sasha shot up in height from 182 to 202 cm in a year, demonstrated a clever technically competent game and soon made the experts talk about himself as a promising center. Belostennyy was included in the youth team of the country and in 1975 became the champion, and in 1976 - the silver medalist of the European Championship. In the same year, the 17-year-old basketball player was invited to the Kiev "Stroitel", with whom he parted for the next 14 years only once, when in 1979 he was drafted into the army and played in CSKA (Moscow). With CSKA, Belostennyy became the champion of the USSR for the first time, and in the Kiev "Stroitel" he eventually became the team captain, its undisputed leader and indisputable authority.
In 1977, Belostennyy was invited to the national team of the USSR. Fearless, never discouraged, a self-confident player - he firmly settled in the national team, in which he played until 1992.
