Oleg Kim

Oleg Lvovich Kim was born on 19 July 1949 in Alma-Ata, now Almaty, in the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic. Published sources say little about his family or schooling. He began coaching while still in his early twenties.

Kim started his coaching career in 1971 with the women's team of the Kazakh Pedagogical Institute (KazPI) in Alma-Ata, where he stayed until 1979. He then took over the army men's club SKA Alma-Ata, which became Zhuldyz during the 1991 to 1992 season. With SKA he won the USSR Cup and in 1992 finished second in the championship of the Commonwealth of Independent States. He coached the young Valery Tikhonenko, later an Olympic champion with the Soviet Union in 1988.

In 1993 he moved with the team to Samara in Russia, where it played as CSK VVS and won bronze in the Russian championship in 1994 and 1995. He worked with Sportakademklub Moscow before rejoining the club, which had moved to Tula and taken the name Arsenal. In the 1998 to 1999 season Arsenal won bronze in the Russian championship, beating Ural Great of Perm, and reached the quarter-finals of the Korac Cup.

He went on to coach Soyuz Zarechny, joined the staff of CSKA Moscow in 2000 at the invitation of head coach Valery Tikhonenko, and later worked with Khimik-Avtodor Engels and Universitet-Yugra Surgut. He was part of the coaching staff of the Russian men's national team in qualifying for the 2003 European Championship. He was also appointed coordinator at Khimki. From 2015 to 2017 he was a consultant to the revived Arsenal Tula.

Kim lived in Tula in his final years. He kept his private life out of public view, and reports of his death did not give details of his family.

Oleg Kim died on Sunday 25 October 2026, aged 77. His death was announced by the press service of CSKA Moscow, which said it offered deep condolences to his family, colleagues and pupils. The cause of death was not disclosed. A farewell ceremony was scheduled in Tula on Thursday 29 October 2026. Tula news outlets recalled that Arsenal's 1999 bronze under Kim remains the highest achievement in the city's basketball history.

Kim was an Honoured Coach of the USSR and of Russia. Over five decades he coached women's and men's teams in Kazakhstan and Russia, and he was credited with bringing up several generations of players, among them Valery Tikhonenko. His bronze medal season with Arsenal Tula is still celebrated in the city.