Croatia men’s national basketball team
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Men’s national basketball team representing Croatia
The Croatia men’s national basketball team (Croatian: Hrvatska košarkaška reprezentacija)[3] represents Croatia in international basketball matches. The team is controlled by the Croatian Basketball Federation (HKS).[4]
The biggest success Croatia has achieved was at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics when the team reached the final against the United States and won the silver medal. Croatia has also won one bronze medal at the FIBA World Cup and two bronze medals at EuroBasket.
Croatia’s Krešimir Ćosić, Dražen Petrović, Dino Rađa, Mirko Novosel and Toni Kukoč are members of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Ćosić was inducted in 1996, Petrović in 2002, Rađa in 2018 and Kukoč in 2021, all as players. Novosel was inducted in 2007 as a coach. Petrović, Ćosić, Kukoč and Novosel are members of the FIBA Hall of Fame. Ćosić is also the only Croatian to have received the FIBA Order of Merit. Ćosić, however, never played for the Croatia national team. As he was only a member of the Yugoslavia national team, holding the record for number of medals (including Olyimpic gold) and the most games played by a player.
History[edit]
Prior to Croatian independence[edit]
Croatia played its first unofficial friendly game on 2 June 1964 in Karlovac.[5] 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 Russell 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.[6][7]
Independent Croatia[edit]
After independence of Croatia in 1991, the first official tournament played by Croatians were the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona. Croatia defeated the CIS team 75–74 and reached the final against the USA Dream Team led by Michael Jordan. The USA won 85–117, but Croatia won its first medal at a major tournament in history.[8]
The next competition for Croatia was the 1993 EuroBasket in Germany. Tragically, before the tournament Dražen Petrović died in a car accident on 7 June 1993 at the age of 28. Croatia still managed to reach the bronze medal game to defeat Greece 99–59.[9]
Croatia earned its third medal at the 1994 FIBA World Cup in Canada. Croatia lost their semi-finals match against Russia 64–66, but beat Greece once again 78–60 for the bronze medal. A similar occurrence happened at the EuroBasket 1995 in Greece. Croatia lost in the semi-finals 80–90 against Lithuania, but beat Greece 73–68 for the third time in a row in a bronze medal match. That medal to date was the last Croatian medal from any major tournament. At the 1996 Summer Olympics Croatia finished in a subpar seventh place.[10]
Decline[edit]
At the EuroBasket 1997 in Spain, the new Croatian generation emerged, but ended in 11th place. Croatia failed to qualify for the 2000, 2004 and 2012 Summer Olympics, but finished sixth in 2008. Croatia also failed to qualify for the 1998, 2002 and 2006 World Cups. Although the team did manage to qualify in 2010, before falling in the Round of 16. However, at the EuroBasket 2013, Croatia had its best tournament appearance since 1995, where the team finished in fourth place.[11]
Honours[edit]
The Croatia national team’s all-time medal table:
Competitive record[edit]
Results and fixtures[edit]
Win Loss
2022[edit]
2023[edit]
Current roster[edit]
Roster for the EuroBasket 2025 Pre-Qualifiers matches on 23 and 26 February 2023 against Switzerland and Austria.[12]
Croatia men’s national basketball team roster | |
---|---|
Players | Coaches |
|
Depth chart[edit]
Pos. | Starting 5 | Bench 1 | Bench 2 |
---|---|---|---|
C | Dario Drežnjak | Danko Branković | |
PF | Roko Prkačin | Matej Rudan | Tomislav Buljan |
SF | Mateo Drežnjak | Roko Badžim | Toni Nakić |
SG | Antonio Jordano | Toni Perković | Lovre Runjić |
PG | Goran Filipović | Dominik Mavra | Borna Kapusta |
Head coaches[edit]
|
|
Past rosters[edit]
Notable players and coaches[edit]
Head-to-head record[edit]
Record against teams at the EuroBasket[edit]
Record against teams in EuroBasket qualification[edit]
|
Record against teams at the World Cup[edit]
Record against teams in World Cup qualification[edit]
Record against teams at the Olympic Games[edit]
|
Biggest tournament wins[edit]
20+ point difference
Olympic Games | World Cup | EuroBasket |
---|---|---|
|
|
|
Biggest tournament losses[edit]
-20> point difference
Biggest qualification wins[edit]
20+ point difference
Olympic qualification | World Cup qualification | EuroBasket qualification |
---|---|---|
|
|
|
See also[edit]
References[edit]
External links[edit]
Recent Comments