If Giuseppe Garibaldi is to Italy, Tadeusz Kościuszko is to Poland, and Christopher Columbus is halfway between Italy and Spain, particularly Catalonia, to be more culturally precise, Krešimir Ćosić is to Croatia and, more generally, to European basketball.
Six national titles and three Yugoslavian cups, as well as two Italian championships and a Saporta Cup, not to mention the Olympic gold in Moscow, are, among the many titles achieved in his career, the personal palmarès of an essential figure in world basketball, who today he would have turned 76.
More than for the titles won, however, Ćosić has gone down in history for having contributed significantly to the development of modern basketball, evolving the role of the center from a mere scorer to a multi-purpose athlete capable of carrying and passing the ball, as well as defending and covering different positions on the pitch.
Between Croatia, Italy and the United States
A Copernican revolution, that of Krešo (as the professional born in 1948 was nicknamed), which not only cemented Zadar’s fame as the city which, legend has it, invented basketball, but which also crossed the Adriatic Sea and the Atlantic Ocean .
In addition to having brought Zadar to the roof of Yugoslavia five times in the decade 1965-1975, Ćosić also led the Brigham Young University Cougars in the US NCAA, becoming the first European athlete to be awarded the All American Honor, a recognition conferred from United Press International.
Having returned to Europe to take control of the fortunes of his favorite team, even at the cost of giving up a career in the NBA, expressed with the famous phrase ‘the Lakers are calling, but Zadar are also calling’, Ćosić then brought his talents in Bologna, specifically at Virtus owned by Porelli.
Long perimeter players and valorized talents
Ćosić’s ‘revolutionary’ vocation was also clearly evident during his coaching career, which Krešo, needless to say, began in 1976 in an unprecedented way, working simultaneously as head coach of Olimpija of Ljubljana and as a player of his Zadar.
On the benches of Yugoslavia and Virtus, Krešo also found an answer to the introduction of the three-point shot in European basketball through the systematic use of long perimeter shots, in clear continuity with the basketball philosophy of Professor Enzo Sovitti, who launched into professional basketball in 1965.
Furthermore, the coach Ćosić was responsible for the consecration of a poker of talents of the caliber of Toni Kukoč, Dino Rađa, Darko Paspalj and Sale Đorđević, to whom the Croatian hero of two worlds gave ample trust and responsibility at the European Championships in Greece in 1987.
Krešo’s legacy
As well as in the city of Zadar, with the Višnjik multifunctional sports hall dedicated to him, and a blow-up of him exhibited inside the legendary Jazine sports hall, Ćosić’s legacy is also very tangible on the playing fields that Zadar, under the led by coach Danijel Jusup, he played both in the early 2000s and in the last two seasons.
It was precisely a triple at the buzzer scored by the big man Michael Meeks, deployed by coach Jusup ‘à la Ćosić’, that Zadar, in the first match of the Final Four in Ljubljana, reached the final of the ABA League in 2003, then won over Maccabi Tel Aviv.
The game in transition with disciplined defense and full freedom in attack implemented by multi-purpose athletes capable of covering all positions on the pitch, including primarily Luka Božić, also allowed coach Jusup, in the footsteps of Krešo, to lead Zadar to two national titles and two participations in the ABA League playoffs in 2023 and 2024.
Matteo Cazzulani
Nella photo: Krešo Ćosić in azione con la maglia dello Zadar. Credits: Zadar Basketball Museum
