The Road of Georgian Basketball to Eurobasket: June 29 - Golden Day of Georgian Basketball

In 2022, exactly one hundred years will have passed since the day when the first basketball shield appeared in Georgia. The basketball century can be divided into different stages, which we are writing about separately in our project „The Road of Georgian Basketball to Eurobasket 2022“.

There was an era of standing up; A multi-year period of self-determination in the Soviet Union; Switch to independent rails; Four Eurobaskets of the national team and returning the European Championship in Tbilisi in 2022.

However, there is one season in the century of Georgian basketball, which is equal to the whole eრა – in 1961-62 Dinamo Tbilisi won the Champions Cup. For many, this may seem unbelievable, especially if we add that in the semi-final they defeated CSKA Moscow both at home and away, and in the final they beat Real Madrid.

The final match took place on June 29, 1962 in Geneva, Switzerland. This date is written not only in the history of Georgian basketball, but also in the history of our country in golden letters.

This is reality. Unbelievable reality.

Road to Geneva

Dinamo Tbilisi rested in the first round of the 1961-62 Champions Cup, in the 1/16 final it faced Steaua Bucharest… Let’s go through the road to finals with Dinamo captain Guram Minashvili.“There was a minimal difference in the first match, everything had to be decided in Tbilisi. Before the rematch, “Steaua” faced a big puzzle: the experienced leader of the team, player Mihai Nedef did not travel by plane. Nedef arrived in Georgia by train and joined his teammates before the match. However, as it turned out later, he did it in vain – we also defeated the Romanians in Tbilisi (82:77) and reached the quarterfinals of the Champions Cup,” – Guram Minashvili recalled. 

“Georgians living in Turkey surrounded us, the basketball players after the match and bombed us with questions about Georgia. They said, they could not cheer us out loud because they were afraid that we would lose with a big difference and they would’ve been ashamed. Although the best Turkish basketball players of that time gathered in “Darushafaka” and they were almost an informal Turkish team, we still defeated them convincingly (80:67). Georgians living in Turkey could not contain their emotions at the end of the match and rejoiced with us.”

The Moscow meeting turned out to be equal from the beginning to the end. In the decisive moment, the Georgians showed more strength and defeated CSKA on their own court with a difference of 4 points – 75:71. Vladimer Ugrekhelidze became the top scorer with 22 points.

“Before the rematch, a voice was heard as if we had been pressured and forced to give up the game. We had to do all this for the benefit of the USSR, because at that time CSKA was the current holder of the Champions Cup and in the final it would have defended the title better than us.

In response, I want to say emphatically: there was no such pressure, no one really asked us to lose the game. We also won in Tbilisi (77:66) and got a ticket to the final. “

The big controversy took place over the venue of the 1962 Champions Cup final. As a rule, the teams had to play at home and away, but in Spain there was a Franco regime that was hostile to the Soviet Union and the Spaniards refused to allow Georgians into Madrid – they did not issue visas. It did not matter to them whether the Dinamo players were Georgians or Russians, Soviet citizens were not allowed to enter Spain.

FIBA was negotiating with both sides and it was finally decided – the owner of the silver basket had to be figured out by one match. A neutral country, Switzerland (Geneva), was selected for the match.

“At the beginning of the match we followed the pace of the Spaniards. It was a really magnificent sight, lightning combinations, fast assists were creating some incredible effect.

The spectators were jumping restlessly on the seats, the hall was rumbling, the fans were unaccountably following the rhythm of the game. At the end of the meeting, FIBA President Jones said that he had not seen such a beautiful, such adventurous and at the same time correct fight in thirty years.”

Georgian power

Grigol Robakidze was watching the match between Dinamo and Real in Geneva, sending a letter to his sister with emotional content:

“Dear Lida, yesterday a competition was held here of basketball players, Georgians and Spaniards, for the championship of Europe. You have probably heard: the Georgians won, they were seven points ahead of the Spaniards (90:83).

The defeat would have been even bigger for the Spaniards if they had not had the African American Higtower, an amazing player (32 points out of 83 are his). Georgians played calmly, in a well-organized, methodical way – the effort of their head coach, Otar Qorqia, was definitely seen here. The Spaniards seemed anxious. They played more separately, nor did they have a common path properly directed. I was very nervous. It is clear: blood! This victory of Georgians is very important. I saw the force torn from the Georgian: Great!”

Photos of the final 📷

Guram Minashvili (left) and Real Madrid captain Jose Luis (right)

Vladimer Ugrekhelidze (with ball in hand) and Anzor Lezhava (N10)