ZORAN CUTURA - 101 Greats of European Basketball

Zoran
Cutura
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A great from the
shadows
There was a time when European basketball
was being played in Syria, which even hosted
the 1979 FIBA U16 European Championship.
In the title game played in Damascus,
Yugoslavia defeated Italy 103-100 and the
hero of the game was one Zoran Cutura
(CHUH-tu-rah), who scored 41 points. Antonello Riva
and Alberto Tonut starred for Italy. Earlier in the tournament,
against a strong Spain squad led by Fernando
Martin and Andres Jimenez, Cutura scored 30 points
in an 89-88 win. His average for the tourney was an
impressive 23.9 points. Cutura was the best scorer and
the MVP, even though not officially. Some other very
good players who came out of this generation were Nebojsa
Zorkic, Srdjan Dabic and Marko Ivanovic, but the
only high-profile star was Cutura himself.
Born in Zagreb on March 12, 1962, Cutura started
playing basketball in school, where the physical education
teacher noticed his height (2.02 meters) and sent
him to the Industromontaza club, where he started
taking basketball more seriously. The flawless scouting
system run by the Yugoslav federation never let any
talents slip from their sight. That’s the only explanation
for how a kid from a second division team became the
leader of the national team. Cutura played in Industromontaza
for three years, between 1978 and 1981. He
then signed for the Cibona team of Mirko Novosel, who
had just started building the finest opus of his career as
a coach: the Great Cibona.
“Few people know that Cutura had a deal with Zadar.
Fortunately, I managed to stop him from leaving. I convinced
him that he had to stay home and be a part of my
project,” the legendary coach recalled in 2014.
Novosel put his team together step by step, as if
building a mosaic. The key piece at the start of a long
journey was the arrival of Kresimir Cosic, already a
veteran, but always a genius. From Dubrovnik arrived
Andro Knego; from Sibenik came Aleksandar Petrovic
first and then his brother Drazen. Ivo Nakic came from
Rijeka and Branko Vukicevic from OKK Belgrade. The
culmination of the process would be Cibona’s back-toback
European crowns in 1985 and 1986. But even before
that, Cutura’s career experienced other important
moments.
Triple crown in the first season
Cutura competed at the first FIBA U19 Basketball
World Cup in Brazil in 1979. A good Yugoslav team with
Zeljko Obradovic, Goran Grbovic, Zoran Radovic and
Cutura (18.3 points) finished fourth. The following year,
at the 1980 FIBA U18 European Championship in Celje,
Yugoslavia was second behind the USSR. Cutura was not
just a name anymore, but a quality player. Against Italy, he
scored 29 points and he averaged 22.8 for the tourney.
“Zoran always had a sixth sense for getting the ball,”
Novosel explained. “He was not a tall man, he was not
athletic. He had the height of a small forward, but he
somehow sensed where the ball would go and he also
had great timing for rebounds. At the start of his career,
he practiced a lot at two-on-two and ‘three, three, three,’
even on street playgrounds. And that helped him a lot.”
In his first season with Cibona, Cutura started winning
titles. Cibona defeated Bosna Sarajevo, the reigning
European champ that year, in the Yugoslav Cup final,
Zoran Cutura
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Vladimir Stankovic
68-62. In the Saporta Cup, Cibona reached the final. On
March 16, 1982 in Brussels, Real Madrid – armed with
Fernando Martin, Juan Antonio Corbalan, Mirza Delibasic,
Wayne Brabender, Juanma Iturriaga and Fernando
Romay - was the clear favorite, but the talented Croatian
team managed to prevail. After trailing 50-40 at
the break, Real Madrid managed to force overtime, 88-
88, but in the extra session it fell behind and lost 96-95.
Only five players scored for Cibona in that game: Knego
34, Cosic and Aca Petrovic 22 each, Damir Pavlicevic 12
and Mihovil Nakic, 6. The young Cutura, just like Rajko
Gospodnetic and Adnan Becic, was scoreless.
The Yugoslav League also presented, for the first
time and with its share of criticism, a playoffs system.
Partizan finished first and Cibona second. The first
game of their playoff series was played at the old Sports
Hall in New Belgrade. It is still one of the best games
I can remember at the club level. Three overtimes,
drama in the final seconds, and in the end, a 112-108
Cibona victory. The final series was best-of-three and at
home Cibona won easily and claimed its first title.
Two-time European champ
Cibona won the Yugoslav Cup in 1983 and won the
Yugoslav League title again in 1984, which allowed the
team to return to the EuroLeague. The team had a great
roster but it was lacking a superstar, a leader. Novosel,
smart as always, took the lead and won the battle, over
several other teams, for the young Drazen Petrovic.
After a great season, with 12,000 fans attending all
its home games, Cibona reached the continental title
game. The opponent: Real Madrid. The site: Peace and
Friendship Stadium in Piraeus, Greece. The referees:
Yvan Mainini, the future FIBA president, and Costas
Rigas, the future Euroleague Basketball director of referees.
The date: April 3, 1985.
Cibona won 87-78 behind 36 points from Drazen
Petrovic, but Cutura also played 33 minutes and scored
16 points as one of the key men for his team. Novosel,
following the Yugoslavian school method, didn’t make
many changes. Aca Petrovic and Nakic played 40 minutes
each, Drazen 39 and Knego 37. Real Madrid had a great
team with the Martin brothers, Fernando and Antonio,
Corbalan, Iturriaga, Rafa Rullan, Wayne Robinson and
Brian Jackson, but it could not match Cibona’s talent.
Cibona ended the season with another triple crown
because it won the Yugoslav Cup (against Jugoplastika
104-83) and the domestic league title, as well. Cutura also
fulfilled another dream as he made his debut with the
senior national team at the 1985 EuroBasket in Germany.
In the midst of a generation change, Yugoslavia finished
seventh, but Cutura managed to average 9.2 points.
With the same roster, Cibona started to defend its
EuroLeague title in 1985-86. On April 3, 1986, the team
reached the championship game in Budapest, where it
would meet Zalgiris with Arvydas Sabonis. Again, the
ref was Costas Rigas, but this time with Vittorio Fiorito
of Italy. Cibona managed to defeat Zalgiris 94-82. Danko
Cvjeticanin scored 24 points, Drazen 22, Cutura 16
(with 2 of 2 free throws and 7 of 12 field goals). Sabonis
scored 27 points and had 14 rebounds, but was ejected
from the game in the 31st minute.
Cutura’s role was, as usual, not that of a visible star,
but that of the crucial player for his coaches and teammates.
He was a team player and a star who maybe
didn’t shine too bright, but never dimmed either. He
was constant.
In the summer of 1986, Cutura put a new medal
around his neck as Yugoslavia won the bronze at the
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World Cup in Spain. His contribution was 10.4 points
per game. The following year he also won trophies.
First, in March, Cibona defeated Scavolini Pesaro 89-74
in Novi Sad to claim the Saporta Cup.
Cosic, by then the Yugoslav national team coach,
didn’t call Cutura for the 1987 EuroBasket in Athens,
which saw the debut of Toni Kukoc, Vlade Divac, Dino
Radja and Sasha Djordjevic. In 1988 Cibona won its last
title in Yugoslavia. In the Yugoslav Cup final in Rijeka,
the Zagreb team defeated Boza Maljkovic’s Jugoplastika
82-80. Looking back on the end of the game, my
friend Novosel shared a few thoughts:
“The clock showed 20 seconds left and we had possession.
I called for a timeout and I showed a play for
Cutura. They expected Drazen to take the shot, which
was logical, but I trusted Zoran. After good ball circulation,
Zoran was left open and with a perfect shot, he
gave us the win.”
Cutura was the man of the game with 21 points and
the game-winning shot. Drazen scored 15 points. On
the other side, Dusko Ivanovic netted 15 and Kukoc 14.
For the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, coach Dusan
Ivkovic called Cutura back to the team. Yugoslavia
won the silver medal, behind only the USSR, with 8.2
points and 3.5 rebounds coming from Cutura. In 1989,
he enjoyed EuroBasket at home, in front of his fans.
Yugoslavia was back on top with uncontested superiority.
With Drazen Petrovic as its absolute leader, the
rest of the team was Divac, Kukoc, Radja, Zarko Paspalj,
Jure Zdovc, Predrag Danilovic, Zoran Radovic, Mario Primorac,
Stojan Vrankovic and Zradko Radulovic. Cutura
contributed 5 points per game.
World champion
The following summer, almost the same team besides
the injured Radja went on to win the World Cup in
Buenos Aires with authority. Cutura was a part of that
team too, the last of Yugoslavia as a unified country.
In the 1990-91 season, Cutura played his last Yugoslav
League because, after the breakup of the country,
Slovenians and Croatians did not play the Yugoslav
championship anymore. His 10 years in the first division
ended with 269 games, 3,425 points and an average of
14.7 points. His best scoring seasons were 18.5 points
in 1983-84 and 19.1 in the 1989-90 season.
At age 30, he still had a lot to say on the court, but he
didn’t make the Croatian national team for the Barcelona
Olympics in 1992. In 1991-92 he played for Cibona in the
first EuroLeague with more than one team per country.
Because of the war in Croatia, Cibona played its home
games in Spain. With Radulovic, Danko Cvjeticanin, Veljko
Mrsic, Knego, Franjo Arapovic and Cutura, it was a
solid team. Cutura did not play the 1993 EuroBasket in
Germany either. That year, after 12 seasons with Cibona,
Cutura decided to move to Split. In 1994 he won his last
trophy, the Croatian Cup, before retiring in 1995.
After his impressive run in Cibona, Split and the
national team, Cutura had won 17 titles, a silver medal
and two bronzes. He is one of the few greats from
the former Yugoslavia who never played abroad. He
explained several times that he had the chance to do
so, but that his kids were in school and he didn’t want to
leave without his family.
After his career, Cutura became a colleague of mine.
He is a well-known journalist, well respected because of
his basketball knowledge and clear and direct style. He is a
perfect analyst, with the right words about any situation.
Zoran Cutura
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