The man who wore No. 8 (in response to Dan Steinberg)

Dan Steinberg, DC Sports Бог, March 22, 2010:

There's a fuller translation of the interview at Alex Ovetjkin, with many more details about his mother's life, including why she chose the number 8:

When I first started with juniors in Dynamo, they began to put me with the older group. I almost did not play with my age. I immensely liked one basketball player, Vladimir Zinman. He played under eight. I was in love with him as an athlete! How awesome he played! He was a luxury playmaker. I still haven't seen anyone equal to him.

He was older than me by two years. I went to all the championship games in Moscow where Zinman played. And when I started playing I asked for the number eight. Since then the eight has always been with me, starting with juniors and ending with the Olympic team.

So D.C.'s current Great 8 fixation is because of Vladimir Zinman, of all people; a man who's basketball career is un-Googleable.

After I read Dan's post I got curious. First of all I realized that I didn't pay attention to Google translation. The last name (Цинман) should've been translated as Tsinman. Datsyuk has the same letter in his last name: Дацук. Here's what I've found:

By Benjamin Chernukhin, Central Jewish Resource, Sept. 13, 2009, www.sem40.ru/sport/23234/:

Jews play basketball
One can hardly dispute the assertion that the team Moscow Dynamo set the record for the absorption of Jewish players. In 1948 when this team won the Soviet Union championship M. Kogan was in their roster. I didn't see that player, I was too young. But in the second half of the fifties the same Moscow Dynamo team was called the team of Studenetsky-Torban, on behalf of two of its leading players.

So in the early sixties V.Torban and M.Studenetsky leave the team. But as the saying goes, "A holy place is never empty." Just a few years passed and Moscow Dynamo has two new players: Vladimir Tsinman and Nikolai Gilgner. V. Zinman was playing the guard position (height: 6'1" 185 cm). He began to play for the team very early, as 18-year old (born in early 1948), but his athletic career was very short: from 1966 to 1972. I don't know why V. Zinman concluded his playing career so soon , possibly injury was the cause. Also in 1972 he graduates from Moscow Road [Construction] Institute, but didn't become an expert on cars and roads, he started working as a professional basketball coach. At first he worked with teams of the lower leagues, and in 1985 became a senior coach of his alumni team Moscow Dynamo which he coached in 1985-86, in 1992-94 and in 1997-98. In addition V. Zinman coached the teams of the top Russian basketball league such as Avtodor (Saratov), Lokomotiv (Rostov), women's team CSKA (Moscow). In 1987-91 he coached youth and junior teams of the Soviet Union and Russia. Since 1999 V. Zinman coached team Russia under the head coach Stanislav Eremin, and even for some time was acting as the head coach. He has the title of Honored coach of Russia.

Vladimir Tsinman. Photo courtesy gazeta.ru

FIBA Europe, March 2, 2004:

The old Soviet Union were heavyweights in international basketball so the absence of the Russian men at the Athens Olympics has left the draw with a distinctly different look.

Sergei Elevich wasn't able to guide the national team to a top-three finish at the European Championships and, as a result, world basketball won't see the amazing Andrei Kirilenko in action four years after he shone at the Sydney Games.

Currently in charge of BC Khimki, Elevich believes he is the man who should take the national team reins again and has applied for the position along with five others.

Former Russian international players with coaching experience at club level have applied, including Sergei Babkov.

Others to apply are Sergei Bazarevich (former Dinamo Moscow head coach), Valeri Tikhonenko (former CSKA Moscow head coach), Vladimir Tsinman (Stanislav Eremin's assistant in the National Team of Russia 1999-2002) and Eugeni Pashutin (current coach of CSKA-2 Moscow).

The Executive Committee of the Basketball Federation of Russia is expected to make its decision later this month.

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