Yuri Korneev


Yuri Korneev, was a Russian basketball player. At a height of 1.98 m tall, he played at the small forward position. He was among the 105 player nominees for the 50 Greatest EuroLeague Contributors list.

Club career

Korneev started his club career with Dynamo Moscow, but he eventually moved to CSKA Moscow, where he became one of the club's cornerstones in the 1960s. While a member of the Red Army club, Korneev won a EuroLeague championship in 1963. He scored 15 crucial points in the tie-breaking final game against Real Madrid, after first two games of the finals were not enough to crown a champion. He made it to the EuroLeague Final once again, two years later, when Real took their revenge for what had been a bitter loss 2 years earlier. In addition to that, Korneev helped CSKA to win five Soviet Union League championships.
Korneev left CSKA in the prime of his career, due to a Soviet rule at the time, that did not allow players above 25 years old to play for the Army-supported team.

Soviet national team

Korneev was a regular member of the senior Soviet national basketball team. Korneev won two EuroBasket gold medals, in 1959 and 1961, two Summer Olympics silver medals, in 1960 and 1964, and a bronze medal at the 1963 FIBA World Championship.