Viktor Zubkov (basketball)

Viktor Alekseyevich Zubkov (Виктор Алексеевич Зубков; 24 April 1937 – 16 October 2016) was a Soviet professional basketball player and coach. At a height of 2.04m, he played at the center position. He is considered to be one of the most distinguished players of Soviet and European basketball in the 1950s and 1960s.

He won two silver medals at the Summer Olympic Games, while representing the senior men's Soviet national team. He was named one of FIBA's 50 Greatest Players in 1991.

Club playing career
Zubkov played at the club level with CSKA Moscow, with whom he won 8 Soviet national league titles (1959–1966), and two FIBA European Champions Cup (EuroLeague) titles (1961 and 1963).

National team career
As a member of the senior men's Soviet national team for seven years (1956–1963), he won two Olympic silver medals (1956 and 1960), one FIBA World Cup bronze medal, in 1963 (in which he was also the team captain), and three EuroBasket gold medals (1957, 1959, and 1961).

Post-playing career
Zubkov retired from playing basketball in 1966, and after that, he worked as senior instructor and deputy chief of the military-engineering academy, named after Valerian Kuybyshev, and as the head coach of the senior Mozambican national team.

Death
Zubkov died on 16 October 2016.