FIBA ranking Coach Aleksandar Petrović Appearances 4 (First in 1992) Location Croatia Joined FIBA 1992 | FIBA zone FIBA Europe Nickname(s) Kockasti Medals Silver: (1992) Founded 1992 | |
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National federation Croatian Basketball Federation | ||
The Croatia men's national basketball team (Croatian: Hrvatska muška košarkaška reprezentacija) represents Croatia at international basketball tournaments. It is organized by the Croatian Basketball Federation (Croatian: Hrvatski košarkaški savez).
Contents
- Prior to Croatian independence
- Independent Croatia
- Decline
- Current roster
- FIBA World Cup
- Record against other teams
- Biggest Wins
- Biggest Losses
- References
The biggest success Croatia has achieved was at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics when the team reached the finals against the United States team and won the silver medal. Croatia has also won one bronze medal at the FIBA World Cup and two bronze medals at the FIBA EuroBasket.
Croatia's Krešimir Ćosić, Dražen Petrović, and Mirko Novosel are members of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, Ćosić being inducted in 1996 as a player, Petrović in 2002, also as a player, and Novosel in 2007, as a coach. Petrović, Ćosić, and Novosel are also members of the FIBA Hall of Fame. Ćosić however never played for the Croatian national team, he was a member of the Yugoslavia national basketball team.
Prior to Croatian independence
Croatia played its first unofficial friendly game on 2 June 1964 in Karlovac. Croatian team played against US 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.
Independent Croatia
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 on 7 June 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
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.
Current roster
The following is the Croatia roster in the men's basketball tournament of the 2016 Summer Olympics.
FIBA World Cup
Record against other teams
As of 18 Aug 2016
Biggest Wins
20+ point difference
Biggest Losses
-20< point difference