Rubén Wolkowyski

Rubén Wolkowyski
Player information
Full name	Rubén Oscar Wolkowyski
Nickname	Colorado)
birthday	September 30, 1973
place of birth	Juan José Castelli, Argentina
size	208 cm
position	center
Club information
society	CA Quilmes de Mar del Plata
league	LNB Argentina
Clubs as active
1993–1997 CA Quilmes de Mar del Plata ( LNB ) 1997–1999 CA Boca Juniors (LNB) 1999–2000 CA Estudiantes de Olavarría (LNB) 2000–2001 Seattle SuperSonics 2001–2002 CA Quilmes 2002 PBK ZSKA Moscow 2002–2003 Boston Celtics 2003 Taugrés Vitoria 2003–2004 Olympiacos 2004–2007 BK Chimki 2007 Prokom Trefl Sopot 2007–2008 Legea Scafati 2008–2009 Club Biguá 2009–2011 CD Libertad de Sunchales (LNB) 2011–2013 Club La Unión de Formosa (LNB) 2013– 2014 CA Sarmiento de Resistencia (TNA) Since 2014 CA Quilmes 00000 00000 00000 0
National team
1993-2007	Argentina

Rubén Wolkowyski medal table
Basketball (men)
Argentina
Olympic games
gold	Athens 2004
World championships
silver	Indianapolis 2002
American Championship
bronze	San Juan 1993
silver	Neuquén 1995
bronze	San Juan 1999
gold	Neuquén 2001
silver	San Juan 2003

Rubén Oscar Wolkowyski (born September 30, 1973 in Juan José Castelli , Chaco Province ) is a Polish - Argentine basketball player . Wolkowyski belongs to the "Generación Dorada" called Argentine national team, which won the gold medal at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. Together with Pepe Sánchez , Wolkowyski was the first Argentine basketball player in the US professional league NBA in 2000 . After a short career there, Wolkowyski also played professionally in Russia , Spain , Greece , Italy and Poland in addition to his home country , whose citizenship the Polish-born player also took on during his European career. Wolkowyski has been playing in Argentina again since 2008 and, as at the beginning of his career, has played for the CA Quilmes from Mar del Plata again since 2014 .

Career

After Wolkowyski won a bronze medal at the Junior World Championships in Edmonton in 1991 , he also moved up to the Argentine men's national team from 1993 , with which he finished ninth at the 1994 World Basketball Championships and the 1996 Olympic Games . After initially playing for four years for CA Quilmes from Mar del Plata in the top Argentine league Liga Nacional de Básquetbol (LNB), he moved to the champions CA Boca Juniors in the capital Buenos Aires in 1997 . However, Boca Juniors lost the 1998 title against AD Atenas to his national team-mate Fabricio Oberto . At the 1998 World Cup , Argentina reached the quarter-finals, where they lost to eventual world champions, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia , and after further defeats, they finished eighth in the placement round. After no title with Boca Juniors in 1999 either, he moved to Estudiantes from Olavarría for the 1999/2000 season , with whom he won the Argentine championship for the first time and was recognized as "regular season player" and as MVP of the final series.

For the 2000/01 season Wolkowyski got a two-year contract with the SuperSonics from Seattle in the most highly endowed US professional league NBA . Together with Pepe Sánchez , who received a contract after four years at college in the NCAA , Wolkowyski was the first Argentine player in the NBA. In the NBA 2000/01 , however, Wolkowyski was used in only 34 of 82 season games with a playing time of less than an average of ten minutes per game. At the Torneo de las Américas 2001 in Neuquén , the Argentine selection won the title in front of a home crowd for the first time after Wolkowyski had won a bronze and silver medal at this tournament in the 1990s. The rather dominant appearance of the undefeated host Argentina was later seen as the birth of the "Generación Dorada", which crowned itself with the Olympic victory three years after this tournament victory. Tournament MVP and Italy professional Manu Ginóbili started a year later a much more successful NBA career than Wolkowyski, who was in the Dallas Mavericks squad at the beginning of the 2001/02 NBA , but was not used. At the end of November 2001, Wolkowyski left the Mavericks and initially played again for CA Quilmes in Argentina, before moving to CSKA from Moscow in Russia in January 2002 . After CSKA on initial participation in the ULEB Competition Euro League had failed in the second round of the 16 best teams, one could not get back in the Russian championship title and was eliminated in the play-off in quarter-final.

At the 2002 World Cup in Indianapolis , Argentina remained undefeated until the final and beat, among other things, the host United States, which this time again with NBA professionals, but rather uninspired appearing, and in the semifinals Germany around Dirk Nowitzki . It was only in the final that defending champions Yugoslavia had to be defeated after extra time. At the beginning of the NBA 2002/03 Wolkowyski tried again in the US professional league with the Celtics from Boston , who released him from his contract in February 2003 after seven more missions. The rest of the season Wolkowyski played in the Spanish ACB league for the Basque club Taugrés from Vitoria-Gasteiz , where he played together with his compatriots Pablo Prigioni , Andrés Nocioni and Luis Scola . In the Spanish championship, the sixth-placed team lost just under five games against Unicaja Málaga in the play-off quarter-finals . After the Argentine selection had failed to take part in the Olympic Games in 1999 in third place in the Torneo de las Américas four years earlier , when only two FIBA America teams were able to qualify for the Olympic basketball tournament, they achieved a clear defeat in the final against the United States States at the Torneo de las Américas 2003 safe participation in the 2004 Olympic Games. In the ULEB Euroleague 2003/04 it was enough for Wolkowyski with his new club Olympiacos from Piraeus only to a single victory in six games of the intermediate round, while one in the highest Greek division A1 Ethniki in eighth place in the first play-off round against arch-rivals and defending champions Panathinaikos Athens .

At the 2004 Olympic basketball tournament in Athens, the Argentine selection lost two games in the preliminary round, but they won against hosts Greece in the quarter-finals . In the semifinals they defeated the "Redeem Team" with 89:81, as the United States' selection of captain Tim Duncan , who tried to make amends for the disappointing home World Cup two years ago, was called. In the final it was enough for the Olympic victory , which was won with a secure 15-point lead over Italy , against which they were defeated by one point in the preliminary round. Wolkowyski was already somewhat overshadowed by his teammates Fabricio Oberto and Luis Scola in the Argentine front court , but was able to show his strongest tournament performance in the final with 13 points in 30 minutes. After the Olympic victory, Wolkowyski signed another contract in Russia with the club from Khimki in Moscow Oblast . After a third place in the FIBA Europe League 2004/05 they met again in the semifinals of the now FIBA EuroCup 2005/06 competition on the defending champion and national competitor BK Spartak Saint Petersburg . Here you could return the favor for the semi-final defeat a year earlier, but lost the final clearly against Joventut de Badalona . In the Russian championship in 2006 they reached the final series for the first time, which was lost to the nationally dominating series champions CSKA Moscow. At the 2006 World Cup Wolkowyski was again represented in the national squad, but the Olympic champion lost, after remaining undefeated, against eventual world champions Spain in the semifinals with one point difference. In the game for the bronze medal, the Argentines lost to the USA by 15 points. With BK Chimki it was enough in the Russian championship 2007 after elimination in the semi-final series to third place.

During his time in Russia, Wolkowyski, whose Polish grandfather, who came from Warsaw, had emigrated to South America, had also obtained Polish citizenship, since with the European passport after the Bosman decision he was subject to less strict immigration restrictions in the FIBA Europe divisions . For the 2007/08 season Wolkowyski was committed by the Polish series champion Prokom Trefl from Sopot . But this engagement ended after just under six weeks in the season in mid-November 2007. Wolkowyski then signed a contract with the Italian first division club Legea Basket from Scafati in Campania . In the Lega Basket Serie A he achieved ten wins this season in 34 games with the team, which after a deduction of seven points had no chance of relegation and was relegated as bottom of the table after two years of first class again. Then the almost 35-year-old Wolkowyski returned to South America, where he was able to defend its title in the 2009 Uruguayan championship with Club Biguà from Montevideo . He then played the following two years in the Argentine LNB for CD Libertad from Sunchales , who failed in the play-off quarter-finals against Wolkowyski's ex-club Boca Juniors in 2010 and in the semifinals against eventual title winner CA Peñarol from Mar del Plata in the title fight in 2010 . In the Argentine league, 37-year-old Wolkowyski was still able to perform above average; so he scored 45 points and twelve rebounds for CD Libertad in September 2010 in a 118: 115 victory after four extra times against CA Obras Sanitarias. With Club La Unión from Formosa , it was not enough to top positions in the following two years, instead they could only just avoid relegation in 2013. The 40-year-old Wolkowyski went to the second division himself and played in his home province of Chaco for CA Sarmiento from Resistencia . However, these played little successfully in the Torneo Nacional de Ascenso . For the 2014/15 season Wolkowyski returned to the LNB at CA Quilmes in Mar del Plata, where he once began his professional career in the top division.

Web links

• WOLKOWYSKI, RUBEN - Statistics on the websites of the ULEB ( English )
• archive.fiba.com: Players - Ruben WOLKOWISKY (ARG) - Overview of participation in FIBA tournaments (English)
• Ruben Wolkowyski - player profile on basketball-reference.com

Individual evidence

1. ↑ En Neuquén 2001, la Generación Dorada del básquet argentino, sentaba las bases. (No longer available online.) Diario de Mendoza: mdzol.com, August 22, 2011, archived from the original on September 23, 2013 ; Retrieved August 13, 2014 (Spanish). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
2. ↑ ACB.COM: rubén wolkowyski. Liga ACB , accessed on August 13, 2014 (Spanish, player profile). 
3. ↑ Ruben Wolkowisky's profile / 2004 Olympic Games: Tournament for Men. FIBA , accessed on August 13, 2014 (English, individual tournament statistics in the archive). 
4. ^ Ruben Wolkowyski. Polska Liga Koszykówki , accessed August 13, 2014 (Polish, player profile). 
5. ^ Prokom cuts Best, Wolkowysky. November 10, 2007, accessed August 13, 2014 . 
6. ↑ Legabasket: Ruben Wolkowyski. Lega Basket Serie A , accessed August 13, 2014 (Italian, player profile). 
7. ↑ Un partido para la historia. La Nación : canchallena.lanacion.com.ar, September 29, 2010, accessed August 13, 2014 (Spanish). 
8. ^ Ruben "Colo" Wolkowyski la nueva ficha del tricolor. CA Quilmes de Mar del Plata: ClubQuilmes.org, July 10, 2014, accessed August 13, 2014 (Spanish, media info).