ATANAS GOLOMEEV - 101 Greats of European Basketball

Atanas
Golomeev
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Bulgarian legend
In the second edition of the U18 European Championship,
played in Italy in 1966, a lot of future stars
emerged: Dino Meneghin, Marino Zanatta and
Giulio Iellini of Italy; Kresimir Cosic, Damir Solman,
Ljubodrag Simonovic and Aljosa Zorga of Yugoslavia,
who would become the 1970 world champion;
Zdenek Dousa of Czechoslovakia and Aleksandar
Boloshev of Russia. However, the top scorer of the
competition was from Bulgaria.
His name was Atanas Golomeev, who was born in
Sofia on July 5, 1947. He averaged 17.6 points, including
34 points against France and 32 against Spain. Only
two years later, at 19 years old, he made his debut in the
senior EuroBasket in Naples and his 5.5-point average
didn’t hint at a future scoring champ. However, at the
1971 EuroBasket in Germany, Golomeev was already
averaging 18.6 points. And by the 1973 EuroBasket in
Barcelona, he was the top scorer, with 22.3 points per
game, above Wayne Brabender, Sergei Belov, Tal Brody,
Jiri Zidek, Kresimir Cosic and Modestas Paulauskas.
Golomeev also made the all-tournament team with
Nino Buscató and Brabender of Spain, Belov of the USSR
and Cosic of Yugoslavia. As a man of habit, Golomeev
also became the top scorer at the 1975 EuroBasket in
Belgrade, with 23.1 points, again ahead of many superstars.
In 1977, at EuroBasket in Belgium, Golomeev
again scored a high average (20.1) in what was his last
big competition.
I was lucky to follow him live in Belgrade and Belgium
and I have no doubts that he was one of the finest
centers of his era. And, mind you, he was playing
against Cosic, Meneghin, Zidek, Clifford Luyk, Vladimir
Andreev, Vinko Jelovac, Vladimir Tkachenko, Alexander
Belostenny and others. It’s funny that Golomeev
was shorter, standing at 2.02 meters, more of a power
forward than a center. But thanks to his physique and
especially the needs of his teams, he normally played
at the center position. He had good rebounding skills
and a sixth sense of knowing where the ball would fall,
making up for his lack of centimeters.
This was a brief history of the appearances in
EuroBasket of one of the best Bulgarian players ever.
However, his complete story, both personal and professional,
qualify him to belong in this series dedicated to
the best players of the past.
It all started with the Universiada World University
Summer Games played in 1961 in Sofia. Atanas Golomeev,
“Nasko” to his friends, received by chance some
free tickets to go see the basketball tournament. As
he said, he fell in love with the game by watching the
attractive Brazilian players and the better Bulgarian
players like Ljubomir Panov and Viktor Radev. The man
who discovered Golomeev’s talent in 1964 at the Todro
Minkov school was Ventsi Yanev. Nasko was a natural
born talent for many sports. He was a goalkeeper on
the school football team, in athletics he did the high
jump and discus. He was also a good swimmer, but Yanev
saw clearly that Golomeev had been born for basketball.
He took Golomeev to the Spartak school and
then he signed for CSKA Sofia at 18 years old, while in
the military service.
Explosion in ... Canada
At 20 years old, Golomeev already stood out, but
who knows how his career would have evolved if his
father had not been sent to Montreal, Canada as a rep-
101 greats of european basketball
Atanas Golomeev
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Vladimir Stankovic
resentative of the Chamber of Commerce of Bulgaria.
Golomeev studied at the prestigious McGill College,
founded in 1821, and he quickly earned a reputation as
the best player on the basketball team.
“They called me last year,” Golomeev recalled a few
years ago from Torremolinos, Spain, where he spends
his winters playing golf. “On April 12, they wanted to
celebrate something because some of my records are
still standing after 35 years! My average of 37.5 points
is still untouchable, as well as the 57 points I scored
in a game that we played as visitors. Such a shame I
couldn’t make it, but I am happy that they still remember
me.”
His games at McGill caught the attention of several
NBA teams, specifically New York, who was seriously
interested in signing the Bulgarian player. But the idea
of becoming a professional basketball player never,
ever crossed Golomeev’s mind. Interestingly, another
Bulgarian, Georgi Glouchkov, became the first European
player ever in the NBA, in 1986. But that’s another
story. It was almost impossible for Golomeev due to
the nature of his father’s job and because of the rules
back then. The Bulgarian federation would never have
granted him permission to play in the NBA because
that would have meant that Golomeev could no longer
participate in the national team.
He chose to go back home, but this time he signed
for Akademik. In the 1969-70 EuroLeague season, the
Spanish giants Real Madrid saw his potential in their
quarterfinals duel. Madrid won at home, 97-83, and
Golomeev scored 19 points, but lost the duel against
Luyk (34). However, one week later, his revenge was
complete as Akademik won 101-86 and Golomeev
nailed 38 points!
“The only thing I remember from that game was the
helplessness of my players in trying to stop Golomeev,”
Pedro Ferrandiz, the legendary Real Madrid coach, told
me once. “He scored when and how he wanted. He beat
us by himself. He was a false five, he lacked height, but
he had great technique and great shooting. Yes, he was
a great player.”
After six years with Akademik, from 1970 to 1976,
Golomeev signed for Levski-Spartak, where he played
until 1981. In a game against Slavia Sofia, he scored 63
points, the standing record in Bulgaria. He was a fighter
willing to battle against anybody to win. He had the reputation
of having a bad attitude because of his constant
replies to referees on the court, and he was called for
many technical fouls. But outside the court Golomeev
was kind and well-mannered. At 34 years old, he entered
the Bulgarian history books as the first player ever with
legal permission to play abroad. He signed for Adana of
Turkey, who had just won the second division. Of course,
he was the best scorer in the league, and teams like
Efes Pilsen, Fenerbahce and Besiktas lost in Adana that
season. There is no reliable data about his averages,
but Golomeev says that he hardly ever scored less than
30 points. It was just not fair that such a great player as
Golomeev never had the chance to play for a great European
club. But life isn’t always fair.
After his great performance at the 1973 EuroBasket
in Barcelona, rumor had it that Golomeev had an offer
to play in Spain. In an interview published in “Rebote”
magazine in Barcelona after the tourney, Golomeev
himself said that “two Spanish teams wanted to sign
me”. He said he could not reveal the names, but that
“one was from Catalonia”. Many years later, with a smile
on his lips, he confirmed everything:
“Yes, Barcelona had new directors and they wanted to
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sign me, but it was impossible,” he said. “I was 26 years
old and I wasn’t allowed to play abroad until I was 34.”
In the FIBA Hall of Fame
When he returned home from Turkey, Golomeev
played two more years for Levski-Spartak and put an
end to his career in 1985, at 38 years old. After the
1987 EuroBasket in Greece, a farewell game for Atanas
Golomeev was played on June 21 between Bulgaria and
an all-European team with Drazen Petrovic and Stojan
Vrankovic (Yugoslavia), Nikos Galis and Panagiotis
Giannakis (Greece), Antonello Riva and Walter Magnifico
(Italy), Mickey Berkowitz and Doron Jamchi (Israel),
Richard Dacoury (France), Stanislav Kropilak (Czechoslovakia)
and Rik Smits (Netherlands). The coach was
Pavel Petera (Czechoslovakia) and Europe won 129-82.
It was the last game of the great Atanas Golomeev.
He remembers his great rivals, especially Kreso
Cosic who, aside from being tall, was smart and with
great court vision and great assists.
When FIBA, on occasion of the basketball centennial,
chose the 50 best players ever, it could not forget
about Golomeev. It was a recognition for 25 years of a
brilliant career that could have been even better if not
for political circumstances. Golomeev was a Bulgarian
club champion 12 times, 10 as a player and two as a
coach. From 1991 to 1993, he was president of the
Bulgarian federation. He was also a member of several
FIBA committees, but his passion eventually changed
from the “big ball” to the smaller one of golf.
Mihail-Misha Delev, a prestigious Bulgarian journalist,
together with Lilia Yankova and Hari Latifyan, wrote
two volumes on the history of Bulgarian basketball and
has this opinion about Golomeev:
“I cannot categorically say that Golomeev was the
best Bulgarian player ever, but with Ilia Mirchev, Viktor
Radev and Georgi Glouchkov, he was definitely among
the best four big men ever in Bulgaria. He could score
with impressive ease.”
101 greats of european basketball
Atanas Golomeev
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