Basketball player Ivan Edeshko: in Munich, the USA received a blow to their pride from us. Ivan Edeshko, basketball player: biography, family, sporting achievements, awards Ivan Edeshko basketball player biography
Ivan Ivanovich Edeshko(March 25, 1945, Stetski village, Grodno district, Grodno region, Belarusian SSR, USSR) - Soviet basketball player. Height - 196 cm. Honored Master of Sports of the USSR (1972).
Graduated from the Belarusian Institute of Physical Education (1970).
Biography
He played for Spartak (Minsk), CSKA (Moscow), SKA (Kyiv).
He is remembered for his “golden” pass to Alexander Belov three seconds before the end of the final match with the US team at the Olympics in Munich (1972).
Coach of the USSR national team at the 1982 World Cup (1st place) and the 1987 European Championship (2nd place). Honored Trainer of Russia, Honored Trainer of the USSR.
Coach of the CSKA men's team - champion of Russia in 1992. Head coach of the Russian junior team in 1998-2000. Since 2000, head coach of the Russian youth team.
Achievements
- Olympic champion 1972, bronze medalist of the Olympic Games-76
- World champion 1974, silver medalist at the 1978 World Championships
- European champion 1971, 1979, silver medalist of the European Championship 75; bronze medalist of European Championship 73
- Champion of the USSR 1971-74, 1976, 1977, 1979, 1980. Silver medalist of the USSR Championship 1975
- Universiade champion 1970; silver medalist - 1973
- Owner of KECH-71.
- Awarded the Order of the Badge of Honor (1972), the Order of Honor (2006), and the Medal for Labor Valor (1982).
Family
Father - Edeshko Ivan Alexandrovich (1907-1997). Mother - Edeshko Anna Vikentievna (1912-1988). Brother - Evstafiy Edeshko - works at the Department of Physical Education at the Grodno State University named after Yanka Kupala.
Wife - Edeshko Larisa Andreevna (born 1946), graduated from Moscow State University, worked as a teacher. Daughter - Edeshko Natalia Ivanovna (born 1970), tennis player, master of sports, worked at CSKA. Son-in-law - Nechaev Andrey Artemyevich, (born 1963), former president of the Khimki basketball club (August 2012 - January 2013). Grandchildren: Artem, Ivan.
Sources
- 100 years of Russian basketball: history, events, people: reference book / Compiled by V. B. Kvaskov. - M.: Soviet sport. - 274 p.: ill. ISBN 5-9718-0175-9
Lord of the Rings
The harvest is being harvested at the dachas. Apples on the branches burn like New Year's toys. The time has come to dig up the soil and plant garlic “in winter.” There are no cold rains yet. It's time to brush off the fallen leaves and sit on the veranda to drink tea from a coal samovar.
At the end of the summer, the MK special correspondent visited the country house of the legendary man Ivan Edeshko, who went down in sports history as an outstanding basketball player, the author of the famous “golden” pass to Alexander Belov, who brought the USSR national team an Olympic victory in Munich 1972. By the way, this year Ivan Ivanovich celebrated his 70th birthday...
3 seconds before victory
10 minutes from Mitino along Pyatnitskoye Highway, and we are in the village of Nikolo-Cherkizovo. It’s hard not to notice Edeshko. Height is 196 centimeters, slanting fathoms in the shoulders, in his entire appearance - prowess and strength. To write from such epic heroes...
Showing a large house on the site, he says:
I like my “house”, built of logs and lined with brick. It was my dream to live in a tree. And I like my “home” - the atmosphere in the house created by family and friends.
Ivan Ivanovich admits that at one time he traveled a lot, traveled to 43 countries, saw the world, and now he prefers to spend his free time fishing or at the dacha, where much was done with his own hands.
Here there was a wasteland, solid clay, fertile soil had to be brought in by truck, says the owner.
Now there is a house, a bathhouse and a garage. Instead of beds there is a neatly trimmed lawn.
I don’t really like growing vegetables, unlike my wife Larisa. I like big juicy tomatoes, which in our region cannot be grown even in a greenhouse. What I like most is planting trees! - Ivan Ivanovich shares, pointing to pear trees, apple trees, pine trees, spruce trees, walnut, Canadian maple...
It is not often now that you can find planted birch trees, maples and linden trees on the site. And for Ivanovich, as his friends call him, this “round dance” reminds him of his native part of the city of Grodno across the Neman River, where he grew up.
The Zaneman part of Grodno was akin to Moscow's Maryina Roshcha or Leningrad's Ligovka. Among the neighbors there was not a single family in which at least someone was not imprisoned in distant places for theft, robbery, or even murder. How I and my two brothers managed to avoid such a fate is still unclear... I think it’s all about family and upbringing. Our father was tough, direct and decisive, and our mother was kindness itself. I think her love saved us.
Remembering my childhood, the owner takes me to the basketball backboard near the garage. Indeed, what would an Olympic champion's dacha be without a play area?!
Abroad, one of the opponents said with a smile: “It’s easy to throw the ball straight into the basket, he has a crooked hand.” But in fact it is a curve. After all, I could have remained disabled. At the age of seven, I fell from a fence onto a concrete slab and severely injured my elbow. The joints were crushed in several places. My hand started to swell. It became clear that amputation had to be done. Mom was categorical: “I won’t let my son take my hand away!” Chief Surgeon Nichiporuk said: “Okay, let's try to save...” And they saved. Three times the bones were broken and re-set. When it fused for the third time, the arm did not bend.
And then Ivan’s mother, Anna Vikentievna, treated her son herself. She poured hot water into a large aluminum can, threw a 10-kilogram weight into it, and forced Ivan to lift it with his sore hand and let go. For each day of exercise, I gave my son a ruble so that the boy would have an incentive.
My mother forced me to carry potatoes from the garden with her long-suffering hand. That's how I developed it. Being an Olympic champion, I found the surgeon Nichiporuk in Grodno. I came to his home, brought him a gold medal, thanked him for his hand...
And if his father reprimanded Ivan as a child when he was rushing to practice: “Quit with this basketball! He won’t feed you!” - the mother supported her son in every possible way.
I was lucky with my first coach. Anatoly Ivanovich Martsinkevich gave us vitamins before the game, quite seriously saying: “These pills will now give you strength, you will jump and run like clockwork!” And we believed...
Training three times a day at the children's sports school was not enough for Ivan; he also ran to play with adults on the playground of the local pedagogical institute and was almost in no way inferior to those who were 5-6 years older than him. And in the 10th grade I got to an international tournament. It was an hour’s drive from my native Grodno to Polish Bialystok, but this was already “abroad”, “big sport”.
In my school certificate I had a “C” in geography and a “B” in physical education. It so happened that my whole life, in fact, was then connected precisely with these objects. “In geography” I traveled half the world, and “in physical education” I became an Olympic champion. Many years later, when I was in Grodno at a banquet, I met my old school physical education teacher and joked: “Nikolai Ivanovich! Well, how could you give the future world and European champion a “B”?” And he was found: “If I would give you an “A”, you wouldn’t have to prove to yourself and others that you are the best!”
Olympic final 1972 USSR–. 3 seconds left in the match. After successful free throws, the Americans led - 50:49. Coach Vladimir Kondrashin released Ivan Edeshko for the decisive attack. The defender was entrusted with the “last hope” pass.
Standing in front of me was a huge Tom Burlesson - 2 meters 26 centimeters. The American waved his huge arms so that in the air they crossed the invisible wall between the court and the space behind the end line. This was prohibited by the rules, and the judge showed this to the American with his hand. Burlesson, apparently, took the referee’s gesture as an instruction to move deeper into the court, took 9-10 steps from the front line, thereby opening up operational space for me...
The Americans could not accept defeat and filed a protest. Due to referee errors, the final 3 seconds were replayed twice. Organizers of the Olympic basketball tournament and officials of the International Basketball Federation discussed the controversial situation all night.
We were at the hotel at five in the morning. The most annoying thing was that there was beer and Bavarian sausages in the refrigerator. But you can’t drink: what if there’s a replay! After all, the commission has not yet made a decision. After breakfast we gathered - second coach Sergei Bashkin stopped by and said: “Replay…” Everyone sighed in disappointment. "...in four years in Montreal!" - Bashkin said slowly and burst into a smile. There was joy!
The real hero of the match, according to Ivan Edeshko, was Sergei Belov, who earned 20 points out of 51.
For victory, the Olympic champions were given 3 thousand rubles and were given the opportunity to buy a Zhiguli without waiting in line. But the US team players did not come to the awards ceremony. Their silver medals are still kept in the Olympic Museum in Lausanne. They left a will to their descendants: never to take these awards.
“For three weeks of games and flights they received $65”
Ivan Ivanovich goes to show us his bathhouse.
“This is my pride, I knit the brooms myself,” the owner shows us the bundles of oak branches in the corner. He himself, as it turned out, masterfully wields a plane.
Once I planed a large wooden bed in the basement, but then I couldn’t take it out, I had to take it apart,” Ivan Ivanovich laughs. And suddenly he asks: “Do you know why I don’t like journalists?” When I was still an active athlete, one of the reporters asked me to remember the brightest moments of my life when I felt elated. I answered honestly: “When, after a victory somewhere abroad, you board a plane to fly home, it warms your soul to know that you not only managed to do good in a purely professional sense, but also bought a lot. And not only for yourself and loved ones, but also for sale. You have already calculated, you have a “positive balance”. You and your teammates washed your success away with a glass of good American whiskey. My wife, daughter, and friends are waiting at home. And when you’ve already gone through customs, take a taxi, get a Marlboro, light a cigarette, and euphoria begins...” All this was published in the newspaper a couple of days later, and letters were sent: “Ivan Ivanovich, we are raising children by your example. And you, it turns out, drink, shop, sell, smoke...” Since then, I know that it is not always possible to be frank with reporters, especially when it comes to your feelings.
Ivan Ivanovich's resentment is understandable. But, like all giants, he is not a vindictive person. After just a couple of seconds, he says that the “moment of truth” for him was the 100th anniversary of basketball in . Ivan Edeshko was then included in the symbolic top five basketball players of the century. He became the best in the point guard category. (The men’s “team of the century” also included: Arvydas Sabonis, Sergei Belov, Andrei Kirilenko, Alexander Belov.)
Edeshko was adored by fans both at home and abroad.
Once in the States he received crazy applause. Ivan was not afraid of collisions with an opponent under the shield and always stood on defense to the end, often catching forwards and forcing them to crash into him in violation of the rules. And in the game, one of the “big” Americans accelerated in full confidence that Edeshko would get scared of him at the last moment and dodge the collision, thereby clearing the way to the ring. But Ivan remained standing and caught the player flying above him by the legs.
If I had let go of my hands or stepped half a step to the side, the American, by inertia, would have flown over me and, hooking his legs on his shoulder, would have crashed down from the entire height of his flight. But I pressed him to me, began to back away with this heavy load, and walked about seven meters until I stopped and put my opponent on the floor.
The audience burst into applause for the fact that Ivan Edeshko treated their player so carefully.
In the first overseas tours, Soviet basketball players received $65 for three weeks of games and flights. That is, 3 (!) dollars a day.
Of course, we were well fed, we lived in hotels paid for in advance by the host party, but in financial terms we could only count on $65. I will give one episode that explains all the absurdity of that time and the morals that reigned in Soviet state sports. Once during a hockey tournament in which our hockey players took part, the organizers organized competitions: who would score the most shootouts, and who would make the most saves. And for money. The Czech striker scored the most goals. When he was awarded the cash prize, he set the table and invited all the competition participants to a banquet. Tretyak, who became the best goalkeeper, was forced to give the entire amount to the head of the delegation, to the cashier. And the foreign hockey players thought that he was being greedy - he never organized a banquet...
The chess players were the first to “revolt” against the State Sports Committee. As they say, one of our famous athletes asked for a diamond instead of the money owed to him for winning the tournament. He would have to hand over the money to the State Sports Committee cash desk and receive a tiny percentage of the amount. But you can’t pinch off a diamond! The champion offered to cut the stone and give him part of it, but they refused. So the diamond remained with the chess player.
"When?" - “Bukra!” - that means never"
Among army athletes finishing their careers, it was considered correct and even fashionable to go somewhere abroad and train a friendly team. To receive an officer's pension, you had to “serve” in army sports for 25 years.
Many people left for coaching jobs. Eremin, for example, worked in Syria, Zhenya Kovalenko - in Madagascar! And I ended up in distant and exotic Guinea-Bissau, where at that time there was a contingent of Soviet military advisers and specialists: tank crews, sailors, pilots. I wondered: why do they need the Air Force if the only MiG-25, having barely taken off, must already land, otherwise you will end up in the airspace of another country? But the Guineans wanted to show that they had a real army. Naturally, with the help of the USSR. We needed another voice in .
Several teams participated in the Guinea-Bissau Championship. Ivan Edeshko was appointed to the position of head coach of the Armed Forces national team.
I lived in an officer's dormitory at a naval base, in a room with one window. In the 40-degree heat that stood in winter and summer, either sandstorms or hordes of grillas - winged African grasshopper cockroaches - flew in, painfully biting into the hair. And the only window had to be kept wide open; there was no talk of any air conditioning then.
The Guinean fleet consisted of 20 people and two tiny ships that did not go to sea due to lack of fuel. But on the territory of the base there were two basketball courts, which meant that Ivan Edeshko could work.
Throughout Guinea-Bissau, lights were provided for one hour at lunchtime and two hours in the evening. Each house had a diesel generator, but no diesel fuel. And in our residential block at the naval base the light was always on. Our merchant ships entered the port. On the very first evening, the sailors ran to me to play football, recognized me and asked me to speak to the team in the wardroom. Such meetings went off with a bang; the captain or first mate usually asked: “How can I thank you?” And I confess, I took it with diesel fuel. We drove up an old Rafik, loaded it with fuel and hid the barrels at the base. One day our consul calls me and says: “You, Ivan Ivanovich, are a violator, I will write a report on you. You go on Soviet ships, which means you cross the state border of the USSR without passport control.” And he immediately added that the problem can be solved very simply: if after each performance I deliver a barrel of diesel fuel to his villa. I had to agree.
In the very first year, the Armed Forces team under the leadership of Ivan Edeshko became the national champion. It is unlikely that this would have happened if he himself had not entered the court as a player-coach.
In the 1992/93 season, Ivan Ivanovich was the head coach. The team once again became champions. But during the perestroika years, the club’s existence began to depend on sponsors. Edeshko is not used to bowing. And when he was invited to head the Sporting Club, which played in the Lebanese basketball league, he went to work in Beirut, which in those years was called “small”.
A year later, Sporting Club took third place at the Asian Cup for the first time in the history of Lebanese basketball. At the Beirut airport, the team was met by a crowd of five thousand... Not a single coach, be it an American or a Yugoslav, usually stayed in Lebanon for more than three or four months; Edeshko worked in Beirut for two years. And I couldn’t get used to the fact that in this country everyone deceives each other, but they do it very skillfully.
The Lebanese have a “magic” word that essentially means deception in business negotiations. The word is “bukra”, that is, “tomorrow”. For example, two people agree on something, and one asks the other: “When?” If the other responds: “Bukra!” - the first one understands: that means never.
But the locals were okay with humor.
The house I lived in in Lebanon overlooked a large mosque. In the mornings, the muezzin's prayers were heard from a loudspeaker mounted on the minaret. Once at one of the parties with the participation of sponsors, one of the respected people asked me what I would like to receive as a gift. When I heard about the sniper rifle, I was surprised: “Coach, why do you need a weapon?” I said: “I want to shoot the loudspeaker on the minaret. It makes it difficult to sleep." It's good that the joke was understood correctly...
“In our time, personality was in demand, and now cash is in demand”
Ivan Ivanovich’s voice spreads throughout all neighboring areas. Neighbors peek out to greet him. They love it! When he decided to put up a solid fence so that his many guests would not disturb his neighbors, they protested: “There is no need for any fence. We want to see you! "
Because of his gorgeous bass and colorful appearance, Ivan Ivanovich was repeatedly invited to sing in the church choir. But his god was basketball. He has collected all possible titles and awards, he is an Olympic champion, world champion, multiple European champion, multiple champion of the USSR, Honored Master of Sports, Honored Trainer of Russia...
Many journalists asked me the question: “Ivan Ivanovich, don’t you regret that you were born in Soviet times? They played for a pittance salary. We could play in the NBA now and earn millions.” So, I don't regret anything. I love my past and I wouldn't change anything about it. The time in which we lived was much better and more beautiful than the present. We breathed a different air - the air of friendship, sincerity, the joy of communication, kindness. People were more honest and decent. CSKA was home, basketball players, hockey players, football players, figure skaters were friends with each other. When sponsors and big money appeared, everything fell apart. In our years, personality was in demand, and now cash is in demand.
Ivan Ivanovich Edeshko, who celebrated his 70th birthday this year, is still actively working. He is the director of the Presidential Sports Games for Schoolchildren project. He continues to give lectures, conduct master classes and seminars, including international ones.
Summing up our conversation, Ivan Edeshko says:
He built a house, gave birth to a child, planted a garden, wrote a book, and played the national anthem more than once in honor of our team. I look forward with hope, up with faith, back with gratitude. Life goes on...
During our visit to the dacha, Ivan Ivanovich spoke on the phone with the coach of his grandson Vanya. Their team won the basketball tournament in Riga. As an incentive, the owner invited the whole team to his dacha. The guys were waiting for a bathhouse, barbecue and... a basketball backboard. Not everyone learns a lesson from an Olympic champion in their life.
Ivan Edeshko was born on March 25, 1945 in the village of Stetski, Republic of Belarus. As a child I tried many sports. Once he became interested in boxing and trained hard until fate brought him together with children's coach Anatoly Martsinkevich. Being a true basketball fan, the coach literally infected fourteen-year-old Vanya with this game. Subsequently, he continued his studies with Yakov Fruman. He received his higher education at the Belarusian State Institute of Physical Culture.
The young man, distinguished by his excellent technique and effective play, was quickly taken note of in the city of Minsk. In 1963, Vyacheslav Kudryashov, who headed the team of masters “Spartak”, which played in the second union league, invited Ivan to the best team of the republic, where the guy in a fairly short time managed to become one of the leaders.
Performances for the strongest club in the country promised an excellent continuation of his career; therefore, in 1971, the athlete linked his sporting fate with the Moscow team CSKA. As part of its composition, he won eight Union Championships, two Spartakiads of the peoples of the USSR, the Champions Cup, the Olympic Games, two European Championships, the World Championship, and the Universiade. In CSKA, he was required in attack, first of all, to feed forwards and centers with passes.
In 1978, 1979 and 1981, the basketball player played for the Kiev Army Sports Club. Alexander Yakovlevich Gomelsky played a certain role in the fate of Edeshko the coach, in 1982 inviting the then-beginning specialist as his assistant to the national team for the World Championship in Colombia, which turned out to be victorious. Five years later, Alexander Yakovlevich again resorted to the help of his former ward. The USSR team took silver from the European Championship in the Greek city of Athens.
Edeshko's coaching career began in 1980 in the national junior team and the USSR youth basketball team. In 1984, a difficult financial situation forced him to go to Africa, work under a contract, where he coached both the national and military teams.
Ivan Ivanovich worked as a coach of the CSKA team and the USSR national team from 1987 to 1990. During the 1990/1991 season, he was the coach of the CSKA basketball club. The team won the first ever Russian Championship in 1992 under the leadership of Edeshko.
In 1993, he left to work under a contract in the Lebanese Republic, where he accepted the local club Sporting as head coach. During this time, the club became the permanent Champion of the country, and in the last season, for the first time in its history, it took 3rd place in the Asian Champions Cup. Despite the fact that all the conditions were created for him to work, Edeshko did not want to leave Russian basketball. In 1996, he returned to CSKA, where he worked as the second coach of Stanislav Georgievich Eremin.
In 2000, Ivan Ivanovich took over the Irkutsk basketball club Shakhtar as head coach, and he managed to lead the team to fifth or sixth place in the National Championship. He coached the team until 2002. In the same year, he was the second coach of the Russian national team at the World Championships. Then for several months he again worked as the second coach of CSKA.
Edeshko is the head coach of the Russian youth basketball team. Author of the book “Three seconds and more...”.
Ivan Edeshko was awarded the honorary titles “Honored Master of Sports of the USSR” and “Honored Coach of the USSR”. He was awarded the Order of Honor, the medal “For Labor Valour”, the badge “For Sports Valor”, and anniversary medals. Included in the Book of Glory of the city of Grodno of the Republic of Belarus. Knight of the Order of the Badge of Honor.
THREE SECONDS THAT CHANGED THE WORLD
It was the match of the century. The USSR national team created a real miracle. Three seconds (!) before the final siren, she lost one point to the American “dream team”. Edeshko has the ball in his hands. Following an incredible trajectory across the entire court, he launches it towards someone else’s ring, right at Alexander Belov, and he carefully throws it into the basket. Victory! Three seconds changed basketball history.
Ivan Edeshko became the main consultant of the film, based on those events.
At first I was afraid that there would be some kind of amateur performance on the screen,” he told the SV correspondent. - The extras are not exactly professional basketball players, although they know how to play. Artists are generally good with the ball. The ideas of the director and cameraman, which were incomprehensible at first, all led to speculation about the final result. But when I saw how seriously the group worked, how carefully the performers of the main roles approached even the most seemingly small touch, first of all, of course, Volodya Mashkov, who recreated the image of the head coach Vladimir Kondrashin, and Andrei Smolyakov, who played his assistant Sergei Bashkin, I realized that I don’t have to worry about the picture. The best film about sports made in recent years.
WERE RELAXED TO THE FULLEST
- Did they listen to your tips?
It depends. They agreed with some comments and made amendments, but not with others, they fought to the death. “Ivan Ivanovich, we have a feature film, not a documentary chronicle. Some moments that are understandable only to you, as a professional, need to be softened, made easier for the viewer,” the director convinced me. I nodded. But skepticism still remained in my soul: well, well, let's see what you wind up in the end. At the pre-screening I watched the film with particular passion. In every scene I was looking for something to cling to, like, complete nonsense, an absurd invention. Have not found. And the fate of the athletes, and the customs, where the guys were caught smuggling, and the KGB, and the communist apparatus are shown reliably. For real. And most importantly - basketball itself! Some moments may have been embellished a little, but for the sake of popularizing the game it is acceptable. I’m sure that after watching, the boys will definitely go and sign up for the sections.
If we remember the real Munich 1972, why did Vladimir Kondrashin let you in on the serve that became “golden”?
He probably believed in me. Three seconds before the siren, we concede a point, although we were leading the whole game - of course, the guys were in decline. But Kondrashin did not give up: “The train has not left yet. We have a train of time. Edeshko - for serve, Belov - for the ring. We’re working!” He, like no one else, knew how to shake things up and get the players going, and even in the most peak situations, I never heard a single swear word from Kondrashin. This is rare for a Soviet coach.
The triumph of the USSR national team turned the basketball world upside down: has no one ever managed to beat the invincible Americans?
I think they still underestimated us a little. Plus, our team has real fighters. Lithuanian, Georgian, Ukrainian, Russian, Belarusian, Kazakh.
Almost the entire Soviet Union. But they were truly one team. They fought for the Motherland, not for money. Completely different motivation. After the game we didn’t even fully realize what a job we had done. The Americans also filed a protest, believing that Sasha Belov scored the winning goal when the match time had already expired. We sat in the locker room almost all night, waiting for what the referees would decide. What if they schedule a replay? And only in the morning it became known that the American protest was rejected. Well, here, you know, we completely relaxed.
RESCUE IS IN THE GAME
- The fate of the author of the “golden” ball, Alexander Belov, was tragic.
He died at 26 years old. Sarcoma of the heart. A very rare disease. It was hereditary for him - his father also died of sarcoma. By the way, doctors later said that sport saved Sasha, otherwise he would have left much earlier. Determination, desire, talent - it's all about him. In public, he is the main star: the best in Spartak Leningrad, the best in Europe, in the world. After the Olympics, his fan clubs appeared even in America. With a small height for basketball, only two meters, Sasha had phenomenal jumping ability. He read the game perfectly in any position. He threw accurately from different distances. I think he knew about his diagnosis. But the popularity and joy of the game drowned out thoughts of illness. He was one of the first Soviet players called to the NBA. For political reasons it was impossible to leave.
- You were also called overseas. Do you regret not playing in the strongest league in the world?
I've been to America forty times. I traveled there to almost all states. I climbed into the wilderness, where the locals had no idea what Russians looked like, and were very surprised that we looked like them, it turns out. And I don’t regret the NBA at all. It was a different world then, a different environment. Honesty. Decency. Friends. Relationship between people. The CSKA club was a real family for us. Songs. Feast. All the players were friends. It was later, when the money came in, that everyone immediately split into groups. And then we felt joy from every little thing. But only those who lived can understand me
while.
COME FROM CHILDHOOD
“The doctors wanted to cut off my hand”
- Did you receive bonuses for winning in Munich?
By itself. Three thousand rubles each, plus the opportunity to buy a Zhiguli without waiting in line. I brought a gorgeous fur coat for my mother from there. Neighbors in Grodno gasped with envy: “Where does such wealth come from, Vikentyevna?” “My son gave it to me,” my mother answered proudly. After all, it was she who saved my hand, otherwise what kind of basketball would it be? When I was a boy I had a bad fall - a very complicated fracture. The doctors wanted to amputate. She didn’t give it: “Do what you want, fellow doctors, but I won’t let you take my son’s hand away.” Surgeon Viktor Nichiporuk took a risk and created a miracle. The bones fused together, but the arm practically did not work. Mom poured a bucket of hot water, I put my sore arm in it and began to slowly bend and unbend it. He howled in pain, cried, but endured it because he had to. Gradually the hand returned to normal. The guys on the team teased me later: “It’s easy for you to throw balls into the basket, your hand is like a hook.” She really is a little crooked. But I could have remained disabled if it weren’t for my mother. In general, I will say that it was thanks to our parents - the toughness of father Ivan Alexandrovich and the kindness of mother Anna Vikentievna - that our brothers and I’s fate did not turn down a crooked path. The area in the Zanemansky part of Grodno, where we grew up, was terribly criminal, like Moscow’s Maryina Roshcha then. Almost every family had someone in jail. We, too, were punks, we fought, we were hooligans, but we came to our senses in time. Sport certainly helped - it gives great discipline. Gets the crap out of your head.
- I heard that you were once invited to sing in a church choir, is that true?
Edeshko smiled. I took a deep breath. And a moment later the glass in the room began to rattle, it seemed, from a rolling wave of viscous, weighty bass, the way priests usually voice from the pulpit.
Like? - Edeshko squinted mischievously, finishing his heroic aria.
I tried it - it doesn't hurt. I'm not Chaliapin. There is a voice, but there is no hearing. I had to study, study with a vocal teacher. But by that time I had become attached to basketball, decided not to waste my time and did the right thing, in my opinion...
Dossier "SV"
Ivan Edeshko was born in 1945 in the village of Stetski, Grodno region. Honored Master of Sports, Honored Trainer of the USSR. He played for the teams Spartak (Minsk), CSKA (Moscow), SKA (Kyiv). Olympic champion 1972, world champion 1974, two-time European champion, eight-time USSR champion. In 1982, he coached the Soviet Union national team, which won the World Championship.
In the article we will talk about Ivan Edeshko. This is a fairly famous person who began his career as a basketball player, and then tried himself as a coach. We will look at the career path of this man, and also find out how he managed to achieve wide fame and become one of the most popular basketball players in the USSR.
Family of Ivan Edeshko
Our hero was born in March 1945 in a small village in the Grodno region. His father Ivan Alexandrovich died in 1997, and his mother Anna Vikentyeva died in 1988. As an adult, he had a wife, Larisa Andreevna, who studied at Moscow State University and worked as a teacher. The couple had a daughter, Natalya Ivanovna, in 1970, who became a master of sports, a professional tennis player and later worked for CSKA. But Ivan Edeshko also has grandchildren Ivan and Artem.
Titles
Ivan Edeshko is an Honored Master of Sports of the USSR, Honored Coach, Olympic champion, two-time European champion, world champion, European Champions Cup winner, eight-time champion of the Soviet Union, champion of Russia, winner of the Spartakiad of the Peoples of the USSR, multiple champion of Lebanon.
Career
Ivan Edeshko loved basketball, his first coach was Yakov Fruman. The young man graduated from the Sports and Pedagogical Faculty. This happened in 1970. It is known that he played for such basketball clubs as Spartak (Minsk), RTI (Minsk), and the CSK basketball club (Moscow).
He entered the history of not only domestic, but also world basketball because he made the so-called “golden pass” to Alexander Belov. This is one of the most striking episodes in the biography of Ivan Edeshko.
Belov was also a Soviet basketball player and master of sports. He was the main player in the Leningrad team "Spartak". So, the hero of our article made this pass just 3 seconds before the end of the final match at the Munich Olympics in 1972. The situation at the match was quite tense and difficult, the Soviet basketball players managed to dribble the ball several times, but they experienced difficulties due to problems with timing and constant stoppages of the game. However, they managed to beat the Americans with a score of 51:50.
More about the “golden pass”
Ivan Ivanovich Edeshko himself repeated many times that it was that game in 1972 that made him popular. At the same time, he said much later that active political indoctrination took place before the Olympic Games. The team left for Germany, where fascism had been emerging and taking shape for some time, but then it was stopped.
Ivan knew that his team was going to win. Everyone had a specific task to take second place. The fact is that they could not count on more, because it was practically impossible. When the final match began, the team entered the court with the desire to be first, but at the same time with a sense of accomplishment. Few people dreamed of victory, because before that the American team was invincible. And then, 3 seconds before the end of the match, defender Ivan Edeshko made an incredible pass across the entire court to Alexander Belov, who threw the ball into the opponent’s basket. Thus, the Soviet Union team became the full Olympic champion. In order to understand the scale of what Ivan did, it is necessary to add that at the Olympic Games the basketball court was 2 m longer than the standard one, which greatly complicated any maneuver.
Even today, when we talk about that game in 1972, everyone remembers Ivan and Belov. The most interesting thing is that Edeshko does not really like to remember that incident, although he was involved in it. He said that the complexity of the maneuver was not so much in the technical execution, but in the psychological stress that arose in that particular situation. He said that catching the ball was much more difficult than passing the ball. Therefore, the credit for winning was completely attributed to Alexander Belov.
Ivan believes that more attention should be paid to Belov, who in the final game brought his team 20 points, which was equal to almost half of all points at that time. But he believes that this fact has undeservedly faded into the background. In an interview, he talked a lot about how it was these three seconds that made him popular, but overshadowed his other achievements and his personality as an athlete in the eyes of his fans. He also said that even if those three seconds that made him famous didn't exist, he would still get people talking about him.
Edeshko was considered the leader in assists at the Championship. For three years he was included in the European team, and the talented coach Alexander Gomelsky said that Edeshko could be considered the Bobrov of basketball. I even compared him to who he was an NBA legend.
The uniqueness of the athlete
Basketball player Ivan Edeshko was truly unique. His height was 195 cm, and even the centers could envy such physical data. Ivan also knew how to dribble and saw the court like Magic did in his time. He played point guard. Of course, in modern basketball such a combination is the norm, but in 1970 the appearance of a playmaker who was taller than many centers was an event. Ivan was considered the most technical player in the entire team. It was he who was the first among worthy basketball players to work with four balls against the wall, like a professional juggler.
How did he start?
Ivan came from a working-class family. As a child, he tried different sports to find himself. Once I became very interested in boxing, trained a lot, until by chance I met with children's coach Anatoly Martsinkevich. It was the boy’s height that attracted him. The man was in love with basketball, and infected a fourteen-year-old boy with this love. He said many times that he was very lucky to have a mentor who taught him how to handle the ball and managed to instill a love for basketball for the rest of his life. And although we talked about the fact that the teenager trained with Yakov Fruman, it was Anatoly Martsinkevich who initially put his interest in this area of sport into him.
The boy spent almost half the day in the hall. In 3 years, he grew by almost 15 cm, thus overtaking his two brothers. The young guy, who had excellent technique to play a productive game, was immediately noticed in Minsk. In 1963, Vyacheslav Kudryashov invited him to the best team, where the young man became one of the leaders in a very short time. But Vyacheslav led the Spartak basketball team, which was later called RTI.
After Kudryashov, the team coach was Ivan Panin. He greatly influenced Ivan's fate because he saw in him a talented back-row player. Ivan Edeshko’s sporting achievements are largely based on the fact that at one time coaches noted his strengths and developed them. Given his height, the hero of our article could be an excellent striker, despite the fact that he could hit the hoop from any distance. He loved to think through attacks and was famous for his ability to give hidden unusual passes. The team needed such a player
In 1970, he graduated from the Belarusian State Institute of Physical Culture with a degree in trainer-teacher. In the early 1970s, a competitor to the Leningrad team Spartak finally appeared, headed by the innovative coach Vladimir Kondrashin. When he was a player, he already began working with young people in order to create a unique team that would compete on equal terms with the army club, which in fact was the USSR national team. Ivan had a very warm relationship with this man until the end of his life.
Even when he became a professional and entered the coaching workshop, he still accepted fairly harsh criticism, while demonstrating humility and obedience. It was Vladimir Kondrashin who enabled Ivan to prove himself in the student team. Perhaps this is what influenced the coach of the CSKA (Moscow) basketball club, who invited Ivan to the team. Indeed, there was no point in staying with the previous team, because it did not claim high achievements, so participation in the Union Championship was pointless. Playing on the strongest team in the country could promise a wonderful career. However, at that time, his decision was unlikely to have any serious consequences, because recruitment to the team was carried out according to a simple scheme. There is a call for military service, and you are already with coach Alexander Gomelsky. However, the point guard in basketball did not have to complain about his fate. In the ranks of the CSK team, he won almost everything he could and won everything that was possible. He gave many years of his life to this team, completely devoting himself to work.
However, in Gomelsky’s army club he had to change. If in the Minsk team he could improvise and allow himself something, then in the capital team such actions were immediately stopped. Here it was necessary to strictly follow the coach’s instructions. Gomelsky very strictly prohibited any risky actions on the site, which Ivan was so prone to. Many decades later, Gomelsky said that perhaps he was in vain forbidding Ivan to do some maneuvers, because the public was delighted if he managed to do something unusual. Ivan himself said in this situation that he was offended, because he could not show up 100%. However, he understood perfectly well that each coach has his own system, which must be obeyed or leave the team. From 1978 to 1981 he played for BC CSK (Kyiv). Ivan Edeshko showed himself excellently and was noted by the coaches.
Coaching career
In 1982, Gomelsky again played an important role in the fate of Ivan. He invited him to be an assistant coach for the national team at the World Cup in Colombia. For Ivan, who was only then beginning to try himself as a coach, this was a good start. After another 5 years, Gomelsky again resorted to Edeshko’s help. Then the Soviet Union team took silver from Athens.
But if we strictly observe the dates, then it must be said that Ivan’s coaching career began in 1980, when he coached the national junior team and the USSR youth team. In 1984, he went to Africa to work on a contract, where he simultaneously coached the military and national teams. Material problems prompted him to make this decision.
From 1987 to 1990 He worked as a coach of the Soviet Union national team and the CSKA team. He did not stay in this position for long, but still, the success of the army club in 1990 is undoubtedly the merit of Ivan.
CSKA won the first Russian championship in 1992 under the leadership of Ivan. His assistant at that time was Stanislav Eremin, whose career would hardly have developed so rapidly if Ivan had not given him the place of head of the team. Ivan Edeshko himself said that he left the team because after winning the first season the club was going through quite difficult times. At that time, the team had very little money and practically no sponsors. Many players went abroad to work. He saw that Stas was full of energy to fight this and showed real enthusiasm, while Ivan could not fight it. He realized that Stas would perform the duties of head coach better.
Lebanon
In 1993, the man left to work under a contract in Lebanon, where he served as the head coach of the Sporting club. He said that this work brought many pleasant moments. He headed the club for three years intermittently, during which time Sporting was the permanent champion of the country. Despite the fact that Ivan Edeshko had all the conditions in Lebanon and received a very good salary, he still decided to return to Russia. He himself said that the main reason for this was that he did not want to leave Russian basketball for a long time. It was important that he be known, remembered and respected in his homeland. In 1996, he returned to CSKA, where he worked as a second coach with Stas Eremin.
The way forward
In 2000, Ivan was the head coach of the Irkutsk basketball team Shakhtar. However, after 2 years, due to financial difficulties, the team broke up. After this, the man continued to work as a coach, and in the fall of 2004 he returned to Lebanon to work with the national team. In 2006, the Sport Express newspaper compiled a list of the top 5 best basketball coaches, which included Ivan Edeshko.
Ivan Edeshko: awards
At the beginning of the article we listed all of Ivan’s achievements, but it should also be noted that he is the owner of the Order of Honor, the Order of the Badge of Honor, and the medal “For Labor Valor.”
Memory
In cinema, the hero of our article has not been forgotten. In 2017, the film “Moving Up” was released. Ivan Edeshko played The film told about the team's victory at the 1972 Olympic Games.
To summarize, we note that today we talked about the life and creative path of a very unusual and talented basketball player. As we can see, he owes his success not only to perfect technical performance, but also to the fact that he always developed his strong qualities, was not afraid to show character on the court, and knew how to position himself. From a young age, they noticed him and began to develop him, because they saw him as a promising basketball player. That’s what he became, becoming famous thanks to his “golden pass.” At the same time, the man showed himself excellently as a coach.
