Croatia men's national basketball team
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| FIBA ranking | 16  3 | ||
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| Joined FIBA | 1992 | ||
| FIBA zone | FIBA Europe | ||
| National federation | Croatian Basketball Federation | ||
| Coach |  Jasmin Repeša | ||
| Nickname(s) | Vatreni (The Blazers) | ||
| Olympic Games | |||
| Appearances | 3 | ||
| Medals |  Silver: 1992 | ||
| FIBA World Cup | |||
| Appearances | 2 | ||
| Medals |  Bronze: 1994 | ||
| Eurobasket | |||
| Appearances | 11 | ||
| Medals |  Bronze: 1993, 1995 | ||
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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
Pre - Independence
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
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
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
Olympic Games
FIBA World Championship
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EuroBasket
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Current roster
This is the roster for EuroBasket 2013 qualification. As of July 15, 2012.
| Croatian National Basketball Team roster | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Past rosters
Olympic Games
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Template:Croatia Men Basketball Squad 2008 Summer Olympics
FIBA World Championship
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Template:Croatia Squad 2010 FIBA World Championship
EuroBasket
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Template:Croatia Squad EuroBasket 1997 Template:Croatia Squad EuroBasket 1999 Template:Croatia Squad EuroBasket 2001 Template:Croatia Squad EuroBasket 2003 Template:Croatia Squad EuroBasket 2005 Template:Croatia Squad EuroBasket 2007 Template:Croatia Squad EuroBasket 2009 Template:Croatia Squad EuroBasket 2011
Head coaches
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Notable players
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See also
References
- ^ http://www.eurobasket.com/Croatia/basketball.asp
- ^ http://www.hks-cbf.hr
- ^ "All Star NBA u Šancu 1964". http://kafotka.net. Retrieved 2012-09-08.
{{cite web}}: External link in|work= - ^ "U Šancu haklale NBA zvijezde, a u Draganiću gradili naftnu bušotinu". http://www.kaportal.hr. Retrieved 2012-09-08.
{{cite web}}: External link in|work= - ^ "KARLOVAC: 40 GODINA NBA LIGE U KARLOVCU". http://index.hr. Retrieved 2012-08-21.
{{cite web}}: External link in|work=
External links
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