God Created Man; Zadar Created Basketball, Part 3

It was the best basketball league in the world after the American NBA, in which future European and NBA stars Dražen Petrović, Toni Kukoč, Dino Rađa, Velimir Perasović, Vlade Divac, Aleksandar Đorđević, Žarko Paspalj played. Of course, Zadar also had its heroes, such as Stojko Vranković, the best European defence centre of all time. Still, Cibona was in advance. They walked effortlessly through the league and then waited for their rivals in the finals with already baked celebratory cake and a cold champagne.

The players from Zagreb were two consecutive European champions and the champions of Yugoslavia. "The Basketball Mozart" Dražen Petrović has been playing his best season in the basketball Champions League ever. After 1:1 in the final series, the final third match of the tie-break was played in Zagreb in front of 13,000 Cibona fans, and a celebratory spectacle was to follow. However, Petar Popović, Zadar's point guard, put up a show scoring 35 points and six three-point shots in the second half and two extra times. In the end, Zadar celebrated 111: 110, winning their sixth championship title in probably the most exciting match they had ever played.

Photo: Facebook Muzej zadarske košarke

In the European Champions Cup in the following year, as the competition of the best European basketball teams was then called - Zadar were in the European Final Four, along with Real Madrid, Maccabi Tel Aviv and Milan's Tracer Olimpia. At the Jazine basketball court they defeated the three-time consecutive Soviet champions Žalgiris from Kaunas 82:78 led by the great Arvidas Sabonis, Valdemaras Homicius and Sergeius Jovaisha. They thus confirmed the indestructible vitality of Zadar basketball and the birth of a new great basketball star - Arijan Komazec 

But then arguably the best European basketball team of all time, Jugoplastika from Split, was born, and it left Zadar without a trophy until the break-up of Yugoslavia and the creation of the Republic of Croatia. However, there was no luck then either: Dejan Bodiroga, maybe the best European player who did not play in the NBA, left Zadar during the independence war in the early 90's. At that time he was a young and talented shooting guard brought to Zadar by Krešimir Ćosić. Furthermore, Komazec and Vranković also went, so that Zadar had long been looking for a new generation that could rival the then dominant Cibona.

Photo: KK Zadar

Such a generation was created in 1998, when Zadar lost again in the final series to Cibona, but the event called Buy a ticket, do not go to the game will remain in the long-lasting memory of all Zadar basketball club fans. Zadar was penalized before the third final playoff game, and so it was played at the hall in Jazine with no spectators. In such circumstances, Cibona won the game and eventually the title. However, a crowd of over 25,000 watched the game from pure spite over a video wall just outside the hall. They all had bought a ticket, so that the Zadar club could pay the fine to the Croatian Basketball Association. Still, Zadar had a grand celebration that year when they won the Krešimir Ćosić Cup, beating the brilliant Zagreb in the final at the court in Jazine before a crowd of about 5,500 ecstatic fans. 

Photo: KK Zadar

"There is no real final if Zadar does not play in it "- the press reported, highly praising Zadar basketball club and its fans widely known for their fanatical love for the club and passionate cheering.

"Zadar is the only club where they have to beg the fans not to come to the matches" - this is how the legendary sports commentator Vladimir Anzulović described the atmosphere at the important matches and the small capacity of the hall. Four years later, Zadar will re-enter history. Maybe Zagreb's Cibona won more titles, but those won by Zadar won will certainly be remembered forever. Led by the new star Marko Popović, the son of Petar Popović, Zadar played in the international Goodyear League (aftewards called the ABA League), the second strongest league in Europe, in which they qualified for the finals in Ljubljana.

In the semifinals, Zadar surprisingly beat Belgrade's Red Star (Crvena zvezda), and then in the epic final even the Israeli Maccabi with a score of 91:88, which was one of the greatest successes in the club's history. The following year, Maccabi were the European champions, which gave Zadar's first European trophy extra weight. In 2005, after a lean 19 years without a national championships title, Zagreb's Cibona finally surrendered in the final series, so Zadar won their seventh, and three years later against Split, their eighth title. 

Photo: KK Zadar

"As children, everyone's ambition was to play at the Jazine court. For us, the players of Zadar were walking gods "- this is how the spirit of Zadar's basketball was vividly described by Umberto Piasevoli, the founder of the basketball school Prvi koš, sports commentator and the president of the Association of Croatian Basketball Coaches.

Finally, in 1996, Krešimir Ćosić was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield,  as only the third basketball player outside the United States, while Pino Giergia received the Franjo Bučar Award, the most distinguished state recognition for his achievements and contribution to sports in Croatia. Krešimir Ćosić died at the John Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore in 1995. In the same year, he was voted by sports journalists as the most outstanding Croatian athlete of all time.