Jānis Krūmiņš (30 January 1930 – 20 November 1994) was a Soviet-Latvian professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

player. Helped by his height (about 220 cm, or 7'3"), he was the first giant center that dominated under European baskets, for years. As a player of the senior Soviet Union national basketball team, Krūmiņš won 3 gold medals at the

1959 Events January * January 1 – Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance. * January 2 – Soviet lunar probe Luna 1 is the first human-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reaches the ...

1961 Events January * January 1 – Monetary reform in the Soviet Union, 1961, Monetary reform in the Soviet Union. * January 3 ** United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces that the United States has severed diplomatic and cons ...

, and

1963 Events January * January 1 – Bogle–Chandler case: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation scientist Dr. Gilbert Bogle and Mrs. Margaret Chandler are found dead (presumed poisoned), in bushland near the Lane Cove ...

EuroBasket EuroBasket, also commonly referred to as the European Basketball Championship, is the main international basketball competition that is contested quadrennially, by the senior men's national teams that are governed by FIBA Europe, which is the E ...

s, as well as 3 silver medals at the

1956 Events January * January 1 – The Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, Anglo-Egyptian Condominium ends in Sudan after 57 years. * January 8 – Operation Auca: Five U.S. evangelical Christian Missionary, missionaries, Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, E ...

1960 It is also known as the "Year of Africa" because of major events—particularly the independence of seventeen African nations—that focused global attention on the continent and intensified feelings of Pan-Africanism. Events January * Janu ...

, and

1964 Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 – In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patria ...

Summer Olympic Games The Summer Olympic Games, also known as the Summer Olympics or the Games of the Olympiad, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The 1896 Summer Olympics, inaugural Games took place in 1896 in Athens, ...

. A Russian poll that was conducted in 2006, named Krūmiņš as the 3rd most popular Soviet men's basketball player of all time, after Arvydas Sabonis and Vladimir Tkachenko.

Early life and career

Jānis Krūmiņš was born on 30 January 1930, in Raiskums Parish, Cēsis district,

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

. His father was a big strong man, who died when Jānis was still a boy. At the age of 13, Krūmiņš had to start working, as a collector of tree resin. Very soon, he became an efficient worker, partly because his height (he was tall by the age 14) allowed him to reach where others failed. He liked his work, and later was hesitant to turn into a professional basketball player, saying that he could always get injured and lose his job as a basketball player, but not as a resin collector. As a well-built giant, Krūmiņš attracted the attention of many sports coaches, who tried to get him into

wrestling Wrestling is a martial art, combat sport, and form of entertainment that involves grappling with an opponent and striving to obtain a position of advantage through different throws or techniques, within a given ruleset. Wrestling involves di ...

boxing Boxing is a combat sport and martial art. Taking place in a boxing ring, it involves two people – usually wearing protective equipment, such as boxing glove, protective gloves, hand wraps, and mouthguards – throwing Punch (combat), punch ...

, and athletics. Famous Soviet athletics coach Viktor Alexeyev even brought him in for a month to an athletics training camp. All of those attempts failed, because of a lack of interest from Krūmiņš. In 1953, Krūmiņš was discovered by

head A head is the part of an organism which usually includes the ears, brain, forehead, cheeks, chin, eyes, nose, and mouth, each of which aid in various sensory functions such as sight, hearing, smell, and taste. Some very simple ani ...

basketball coach Basketball coaching is the act of directing and strategizing the behavior of a basketball team or individual basketball player. Basketball coaching typically encompasses the improvement of individual and team offensive and defensive skills, as wel ...

Alexander Gomelsky, and he was brought to the basketball club Rīgas ASK. Gomelsky was struggling to make ASK the top Latvian basketball club of the time, and he needed a strong player at the center position. Although Krūmiņš had never played basketball before, Gomelsky intuitively believed in his potential, and spent up to 2 hours personally training Krūmiņš before each of the team's training sessions. Gomelsky considered Krūmiņš to be his only apprentice in his whole basketball career — all the other players that he coached were well-established before he had coached them. Physically, Krūmiņš had good coordination and extraordinary strength, but he was slow. His height was exceptional for that time, and was variably reported between . The variation was mostly due to his body's natural contraction during the day, and over the length of his playing career. With a weight of 141 kg (312 pounds), he was described as, "well built and dry". He was not a talented pupil, but he was exceptionally persistent, and performed all the drills that were set by his coach. His strongest point, according to Gomelsky, was his mental balance and reliability. On the other hand, he was too shy for a team leader. Seeing a giant, most defenders did not hesitate to step on his toes, or to push or punch him. Krūmiņš patiently took all abuses, and when once asked why he didn't fight back, replied that he was afraid he might accidentally kill someone. Later, when Krūmiņš became a star, his modesty brought another problem — he was instantly recognized by people on the streets, and cheered and touched by the crowds, which made him feel uncomfortable. As a result of that, he stopped using public transportation, and drove a car instead. Another mundane daily problem was his height, which hindered his ability to find clothes and shoes that fit properly. Luckily, Krūmiņš was spotted by Soviet Marshal Hovhannes Bagramyan. Bagramyan, who was a big man himself, was favorable to tall sportsmen, and after meeting Krūmiņš, he ordered a 3-meter-long (9'10") bed to be custom built for Krūmiņš, as well as for custom shoes and clothes to be made for him.

Club career

All of the long and intense training efforts of Krūmiņš and Gomelsky paid off. Krūmiņš quickly developed into a smart center and a team leader of Rīgas ASK. He won the USSR Premier League championship in 1955, 1956 (with the Latvian SSR Team), 1957, and 1958. He also won the FIBA European Champions Cup (

EuroLeague The EuroLeague is a European men's professional basketball club competition. The league is widely recognised as the top-tier and the most prestigious men's basketball league in Europe. The league consists of 20 teams, of which 16 are given lon ...

) championship in 1958,

, and

. He also played in the EuroLeague Finals in 1961. Krūmiņš finished his club career playing with VEF Rīga. Krūmiņš remained a laid back player over all of those years, as he continued to spare smaller and weaker opponents from his best. However, he was quite emotional and active in the key games that his teams played, and he played with full effort against players that were similar to him in size. Krūmiņš had a rare

free throw In basketball, free throws or foul shots are unopposed attempts to score points by shooting from behind the free-throw line (informally known as the foul line or the charity stripe), a line situated at the end of the restricted area. Free throws ...

shooting style — as he shot free throws underhanded, rather than the usual overhanded free throw technique. However, he was still able to make 90% of his free throw attempts on average.

National team career

Krūmiņš was included into the senior USSR national basketball team in 1955. He was a dominant center for the Soviet Union at the

1956 Summer Olympics The 1956 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XVI Olympiad and officially branded as Melbourne 1956, were an international multi-sport event held in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, from 22 November to 8 December ...

, and he helped the Soviet national team to reach the tournament's finals, and earn a silver medal. He played with the senior Soviet national team for about 10 years, and with them he won

gold medals in

, and

; and

silver medals in 1956,

, and

. He also played at the

1959 FIBA World Championship The 1959 FIBA World Championship was the 3rd FIBA World Championship—the international basketball world championship for men's national teams. It was hosted by Chile from 16 to 31 January 1959. Amaury Antônio Pasos was named the MVP. The ho ...

Personal life

Krūmiņš was shy around people, including women. He met his wife, Inessa, by chance. In 1960, while she was working as a

sculptor Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

, she was ordered to make a bust of Krūmiņš, on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the

Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic The Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic (Also known as the Latvian SSR, or Latvia) was a constituent republic of the Soviet Union from 1940 to 1941, and then from 1944 until 1990. The Soviet occupation and annexation of Latvia began between J ...

. The couple had two sons, and a daughter. After retiring from playing basketball, Krūmiņš worked within his family business, and became a renowned

metalworker Metalworking is the process of shaping and reshaping metals in order to create useful objects, parts, assemblies, and large scale structures. As a term, it covers a wide and diverse range of processes, skills, and tools for producing objects on e ...

, molding metal art from sketches done by his wife. Krūmiņš died on 20 November 1994, at the age of 64.

References

External links

FIBA Profile 1Photo: Krūmiņš (left) vs. Jean-Claude Lefebvre
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Krumins, Janis 1930 births 1994 deaths 1959 FIBA World Championship players ASK Riga players Basketball players at the 1956 Summer Olympics Basketball players at the 1960 Summer Olympics Basketball players at the 1964 Summer Olympics BK VEF Rīga players Centers (basketball) FIBA EuroBasket–winning players Latvian men's basketball players Medalists at the 1956 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1960 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1964 Summer Olympics Olympic basketball players for the Soviet Union Olympic medalists in basketball Olympic silver medalists for the Soviet Union People from Cēsis Municipality Sportspeople from Vidzeme Soviet men's basketball players