Back to one of the most outstanding teams in the history of the World Cup. A country and a team from another time, made up of players from… elsewhere.
A bit of context
August 1990, the greatest nations of world basketball meet in Argentina to do battle. Among them Yugoslavia, twice titled in 1970 and 1978. Twelve years after their last coronation and reigning Olympic Vice-Champion, the band from the Balkans is going to South America full of ambitions. When the leaders of the group are named Drazen Petrovic, Vlade Divac and Toni Kukoc, how not to be filled with motivation? The first named was elected MVP of the last World Cup at just 21 years old, the next is starting to make his mark in the NBA with the Lakers, while the third is rolling in Europe with the Jugosplatika Split. Legend has it that the club beat anyone who couldn’t pronounce its name. Result ? Triple European Champion between 89 and 91.
Yugoslavia then approaches the Argentine competition with gold in the sights. Toni Kukoc, and a host of other European basketball brains, join the Petrovic – Divac pair to take Yugoslavian basketball to the top. Among the lieutenants, a certain Zeljko Obradovic, champion of Yugoslavia in 1987, who later became one of the greatest European coaches in history. The Balkan geniuses don’t know it yet, but this is their last opportunity to shine together.
Symbol of a new era presenting itself, Drazen and Vlade have already begun to show their talent across the Atlantic. Well, this is really only the beginning. The first is struggling in Portland and hardly plays while the second plays back-ups in LA So what could be better than a competition in mondovision to remind Europe that we exist, and show the US that time to give us more than crumbs? Nothing.
The gold Rush
For the Yugos, the competition begins against Puerto Rico, Venezuela and Angola. A light entry for the European juggernaut, on paper. Quietly winning the South Americans then the Africans, the third of the 86 World Cup are much more annoyed by the Caribbean country. When I think of Puerto Rico, I first think of Sucre in Prison Break, but when the American island is associated with the word “basketball”, you have to think of… José Ortiz. The FIBA Hall of Famer slams 23 points that day and leads the Spanish speakers to an 82-75 victory.
19, 23 and 10 are the gaps in the three games of the second group stage for Petrovic and company. Brazilian, Soviet and Greek friends, thank you for coming, thank you also for making room for the basketball players. We caricature of course, but the Yugoslav team of 1990 is a concentrate of genius and technique, an orchestra where everyone was born with their score in their hands.
Yugoslavia are in the semi-finals, to the surprise of… no one. To accompany them, because yes it takes four teams to play in the semi-finals, the Americans, the Soviets and the surprising Puerto Ricans are on the verge of the final. While the last two named clash, the Ricans, second in their group, rub shoulders with the Yugoslav band. As talented as they are (Kenny Anderson, Chris Gatling, Christian Laettner, Alonzo Mourning…), the young players of Mike Krzyzewski have never touched the professional world. Impossible then to compete with players who have already massacred Europe and are even beginning, for some, to make their mark in the US. The United States have never been able to hope for anything against a Drazen Petrovic of the big nights (31 points including 6 bombs from the parking lot). Ah yes, you don’t trust him in the NBA? You will especially say thank you to Portland for having annoyed him.
Even Vlade Divac’s expulsion for 5 fouls does not change the scenario of the match… 99-91, who’s next? Fallout of the Puerto Rican itchy hair, the Soviet Union have a title to reclaim after their defeat in the final in 1986, and a revenge to take after the slap in the second round.
Dropped from 23 points a few days before, it is the Soviets who therefore face Yugoslavia in the final. Geopolitical context aside, the two European giants meet in Buenos Aires for a sporting battle. The poster is beautiful, Yugoslavia is even more so. The 18 and 14 points from Petrovic and Kukoc accompany the exit from the wood of Zarko Paspalj (20 points) for a 92-75 victory. 18 points apart at half-time, the title was only a formality for this group that the 1992 Olympics should have confronted the Dream Team.
“When the Barcelona Olympics were approaching, we all thought that this team could have had a chance against the Dream Team. It’s not realistic because the Dream Team was really from another world, but we thought we could put them in trouble. – Igor Malinovic, Balkan basketball author.
A mythical team, a legendary trio
A nation that gave birth to six countries is quite paradoxical, but that did not prevent Balkan basketball players from agreeing on a common interest: the orange ball. If the succession, and its main protagonists Nikola Jokic and Luka Doncic, begins to seriously discuss, Yugoslavia in 1990 is a compendium of what the region did best. Best in question? Three players who have built the bridge, more used than ever, between the Old Continent and the National Basketball Association : Kukoc, MVP of the competition, Petrovic, whose nickname “Mozart” is enough in itself, and the Serbian Divac at the dawn of a 16-year NBA career. The two Croatians will not wait much longer to sweat the Great League in turn. Toni arrives in 1993 and will be triple champion with Chicago, Drazen will need only a few months to launch an offensive hurricane with the Nets, as violent as his disappearance three years later.
“Drazen had put like 40 on Jordan, and he was attacking Jordan like, ‘It’s nothing. Give me the ball, I’m hot. I play it.’” – Kenny Anderson on Drazen Petrovic in the Once Brothers documentary
If their accomplishments are mythical, it is perhaps precisely what they did not do that truly inscribed them in legend. Between the various proclamations of independence in the former Yugoslavia in 1991/1992 and the Divac-Petrovic quarrel, the team could not have lived together for much longer. Eternal regrets, perhaps even more for us than for them. Lots of “itches”, a few “etches”, a bunch of unknowns, but above all three icons without whom Dream Team 92 wouldn’t have had to see the light of day to restore Uncle Sam’s image. Thank you for that.
“When you put this team together, it’s kind of a basketball miracle.” – Vjekoslav Perica, Croatian historian, about what the Yugoslav team would have given at the 1992 Olympics
The rupture between the Yugoslav peoples of the early 90s and the drama Drazen Petrovic in 1993 put an end to an era of European basketball, without hindering the start of a new one whose results are clearly visible today. And if players like Jokic or Doncic can climb Mount NBA, it’s undoubtedly thanks to the leaders.
Sources : Basket Mag, Basketball Network, Basketball Reference, Basket Retro, FIBA, Vice
2023-08-21 08:13:00
#Yugoslavia #Dream #Team
