Croatia national basketball team

Croatia Hrvatska
FIBA Ranking	16 3
Joined FIBA	1992
FIBA Zone	FIBA Europe
National Federation	Croatian Basketball Federation
Coach	Jasmin Repeša
Nickname(s)	Vatreni (The Blazers)
Summer Olympic Games
Appearances	3
Medals	Silver: 1992
FIBA World Cup
Appearances	2
Medals	Bronze: 1994
Eurobasket
Appearances	11
Medals	Bronze: 1993, 1995
Uniforms
Light Dark

The Croatian national basketball team represents Croatia at international tournaments.^[1] It is organized by the Croatian Basketball Federation.^[2]

The biggest success Croatia has achieved was at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics when the team reached finals against the Dream Team and won the silver. Croatia has also won one bronze medal at FIBA World Cup and two bronze medals at EuroBasket.

Croatia's Dražen Petrović and Mirko Novosel are members of Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, Petrović being inducted in 2002 as a player and Novosel in 2007 as a coach. Petrović and Novosel are also members of FIBA Hall of Fame.

History [edit]

Pre - Independence [edit]

Croatia played its first unofficial friendly game in June 2, 1964 in Karlovac.^[3] Croatian team played against USA All Star Team and lost 65:110 (31:50). USA players coached by Red Auerbach were Bob Cousy, Tom Heinsohn, K. C. Jones, Jerry Lucas, Bob Pettit, Oscar Robertson and Bill Russel and Croatian team was Giuseppe Gjergja, Nemanja Đurić, Živko Kasun, Zlatko Kiseljak, Slobodan Kolaković, Dragan Kovačić, Boris Križan, Stjepan Ledić, Mirko Novosel, Marko Ostarčević, Petar Skansi and Željko Troskot.^[4][5]

Independent Croatia [edit]

After independence of Croatia in 1991, the first official tournament played by Croatians were 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona. Croatia defeated CIS team 75:74 and reached the finals against USA Dream Team led by Michael Jordan. USA won 85:117 but Croatia won its first medal at major tournaments in history.

Next tournament was 1993 EuroBasket in Germany. Tragically, before the championship Dražen Petrović died in a car accident in June 7, 1993 at the age of 28. Croatia still managed to reach bronze medal beating Greece 99:59.

Croatia reached its third medal at 1994 FIBA World Championship in Canada. Croatia lost semifinals 64:66 against Russia but again beat Greece 78:60 for the bronze medal. Similar happened at 1995 EuroBasket in Greece. Croatia lost semifinals 80:90 against Lithuania but beat Greece 73:68 for the third time in a row in a bronze medal match. That medal was to date the last Croatian medal from major tournaments. At 1996 Summer Olympics Croatia won the 7th place.

Decline [edit]

At 1997 Eurobasket in Spain new Croatian generation emerged and ended in 11th place. Croatia failed to qualify at 2000, 2004 and 2012 Summer Olympics but ended 6th in 2008. Croatia also failed to qualify to 1998, 2002 and 2006 World Championships, best result being 14th place at 2010. At EuroBaskets Croatia's best results were 6th places at 2007 and 2009.

Competitive record [edit]

Olympic Games [edit] Year Position Pld W L 1992 2nd 2 8 6 2 1996 7th 8 4 4 2000 Did not participate 2004 Did not participate 2008 6th 6 3 3 2012 Did not participate Total 3/6 22 13 9 FIBA World Championship [edit] Year Position Pld W L 1994 3rd 8 7 1 1998 Did not participate 2002 Did not participate 2006 Did not participate 2010 14th 6 2 4 2014 – – – – Total 2/5 14 9 5

EuroBasket [edit] Year Position Pld W L 1993 3rd 9 8 1 1995 3rd 9 8 1 1997 11th 8 2 6 1999 11th 6 3 3 2001 7th 6 2 4 2003 11th 4 1 3 2005 7th 6 3 3 2007 6th 9 3 6 2009 6th 8 3 5 2011 13th 5 2 3 2013 Q – – – Total 11/11 70 35 35

Current roster [edit]

This is the roster for EuroBasket 2013 qualification. As of July 15, 2012.

Croatian National Basketball Team roster
Players	Coaches
Pos. # Name Age - DOB Ht. Club Club nat. 1.5 !G Car, Marko 700126000000000000026 - (1985-10-21)21 October 1985 1.88 m (6 ft 2 in) KK Cedevita Croatia ! 1.5 !G Pilepić, Fran 700123000000000000023 - (1989-05-05)5 May 1989 1.94 m (6 ft 4 in) CB Bilbao Berri Spain ! 1.5 !G Simon, Krunoslav 700126000000000000026 - (1985-06-24)24 June 1985 1.97 m (6 ft 6 in) CB Málaga Spain ! 1.5 !G Stipčević, Rok 700126000000000000026 - (1986-05-25)25 May 1986 1.84 m (6 ft 0 in) Olimpia Milano Italy ! 1.5 !G Ukić, Roko Leni 700127000000000000027 - (1984-12-05)5 December 1984 1.96 m (6 ft 5 in) Panathinaikos B.C. Greece ! 1.5 !G Vrbanc, Goran 700127000000000000027 - (1984-10-08)8 October 1984 1.94 m (6 ft 4 in) KK Zadar Croatia ! 2.5 !G/F Bogdanović, Bojan 700123000000000000023 - (1989-04-18)18 April 1989 2.02 m (6 ft 8 in) Fenerbahçe Ülker Turkey ! 3.5 !F Babić, Luka 700120000000000000020 - (1991-09-29)29 September 1991 2.00 m (6 ft 7 in) KK Cedevita Croatia ! 3.5 !F Marčinković, Pavle 700123000000000000023 - (1989-05-06)6 May 1989 1.97 m (6 ft 6 in) KK Cibona Croatia ! 3.5 !F Markota, Damir 700126000000000000026 - (1985-12-26)26 December 1985 2.09 m (6 ft 10 in) Beşiktaş Milangaz Turkey ! 3.5 !F Ramljak, Ivan 700121000000000000021 - (1990-08-08)8 August 1990 2.03 m (6 ft 8 in) HKK Široki Bosnia and Herzegovina ! 3.5 !F Rudež, Damjan 700126000000000000026 - (1986-06-17)17 June 1986 2.08 m (6 ft 10 in) Basket Zaragoza 2002 Spain ! 3.5 !F Šarić, Dario 700118000000000000018 - (1994-04-08)8 April 1994 2.08 m (6 ft 10 in) KK Cibona Croatia ! 4.5 !F/C Andrić, Lukša 700127000000000000027 - (1985-05-29)29 May 1985 2.08 m (6 ft 10 in) KK Cedevita Croatia ! 5.0 !C Žorić, Luka 700127000000000000027 - (1984-11-05)5 November 1984 2.10 m (6 ft 11 in) CB Málaga Spain ! 5.0 !C Planinić, Darko 700121000000000000021 - (1990-11-22)22 November 1990 2.11 m (6 ft 11 in) Maccabi Tel Aviv Israel !	Head coach Jasmin Repeša Assistant coaches Ivan Sunara Luka Milanović Legend Age field is age on June 19, 2012

Past rosters [edit]

Olympic Games [edit]

FIBA World Championship [edit]

EuroBasket [edit]

Head coaches [edit]

Notable players [edit]

See also [edit]

• Croatia women's national basketball team

References [edit]

External links [edit]

• Basketball Federation of Croatia

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