RATKO RADOVANOVIC - 101 Greats of European Basketball

Ratko
Radovanovic
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Mind over matter
On most of the biographies that one
can find on the internet about Ratko
Radovanovic, who was born on
October 16, 1956, in Nevesinje, Bosnia-Herzegovina,
it states that he
played at Bosna Sarajevo between
1977 and 1983. But he really started his brilliant career
way before that. In October 1972, when Bosna
was in the second division, a tall and slim kid of 2.07
meters and barely 80 kilos left his parents’ home in
Niksic, Montenegro, and landed in Sarajevo with a
suitcase and dreams of being a basketball player.
Bogdan Tanjevic, his coach during the following decade
and his basketball father, recalled the first steps
of Radovanovic in Bosna:
“Vukasin Vukalovic, Bosna’s sports director, informed
me that he had found a kid that I had to see.
I remember his first game with the junior team. He
scored 13 points, but he showed incredible intelligence.
He was very thin, but he was also very smart. Also, in
practices he showed a lot of character, desire to work
hard, to learn, to evolve. Already in the 1972-73 season,
I put him on the first team. You could notice his talent
and I was sure he would be a great big man.”
I must admit, I didn’t get that impression when I saw
Radovanovic for the first time in 1973-74 at the old arena
in New Belgrade. Granted, he had what, according
to Americans, you cannot teach: height. But he was so
thin that his jersey was too loose on him. He had long
hands, but you could see more bone than muscle on his
fragile body. But that is why I am not a coach and Tanjevic
is what he is: a great discoverer of talent like Mirza Delibasic,
Nando Gentile, Dejan Bodiroga and Gregor Fucka.
Nevesinje is a small town in Herzegovina, a region
that has given the world a lot of basketball talent. Milenko
Savovic, Dejan Bodiroga, Zoran Savic, Milan Gurovic,
even the father of Aco and Drazen Petrovic – all were
born in towns of this region. Radovanovic’s parents
moved to Niksic, where due to his height, he started
playing basketball in 1969. His ultimate motivation
came when Yugoslavia won the gold medal at the 1970
World Cup in Ljubljana. Partizan wanted to sign him, but
he followed his family’s advice and went to Sarajevo to
be closer to home.
The title collector
In the summer of 1973, Radovanovic was already selected
for the FIBA European Championship for Cadets
in Italy. His contribution was discreet (2.2 points) but
after playing 17 games and scoring his first 43 points
in the Yugoslav League in 1973-74, he was already an
important player at the following 1974 FIBA European
Championship for Junior Men in France. Yugoslavia,
with Tanjevic as the coach, won the gold medal. Radovanovic
contributed 13.8 points on average and netted
24 against Greece. Branko Skroce, Mihovil Nakic, Andro
Knego, Rajko Zizic and Radovanovic were the most important
players. Skroce was the top scorer (17.7) and
Radovanovic was second.
At Bosna, Radovanovic’s status with the team increased
with every game. Delibasic and Zarko Varajic
led the team and were in charge of scoring most of
the points, but little by little that duo became a trio.
And even nowadays, those three great players remain
among the top five scorers ever for Bosna: 1. Delibasic
4,901 points, 2. Varajic 4,625, 3. Predrag Benacek 3,517,
101 greats of european basketball
Ratko Radovanovic
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Vladimir Stankovic
4. Radovanovic 2,906, 5. Boro Vucevic (Orlando Magic
star Nikola Vucevic’s father) 2,331 points.
With those three pillars and several good players
(Benacek, Bosko Bosiocic, Svetislav Pesic, Ante Djogic
and Sabit Hadzic) Tanjevic lived a fairy tale, taking his
team from the second division to the top of Europe in
just seven years – with the same group of players and
with the same enthusiasm. Radovanovic’s progress
was obvious. In the 1974-75 season, his scoring average
increased to 5.8 points. In July of 1975, he made his
debut with the senior national team, against Canada
(97-87) at the Intercontinental Cup. I was at that game,
played at Pinki Arena in Zemun (a part of Belgrade), but I
had to go to my notes to see that Radovanovic netted 7
points including 3 of 4 free throws. He played alongside
Dragan Kicanovic, Zoran Slavnic, Drazen Dalipagic, Delibasic,
Zeljko Jerkov and Varajic.
In the 1975-76 season, Radovanovic’s scoring went
up to 13.3 points per game. I don’t have the data for
rebounds, but he was already an important center who
played at the same level as Olimpija’s Vinko Jelovac,
Jugoplastika’s Zeljko Jerkov, Cibona’s Andro Knego,
OKK’s Rajko Zizic or Radnicki’s Milun Marovic. Despite
playing a great season, Radovanovic missed the Montreal
Olympics in 1976 and that, thinking about it today,
feels like an injustice. Despite being disappointed by
that, he never lost his desire to work hard – just the opposite.
After another great 1976-77 season with 14.6
points per game, his inclusion among the 12 chosen
for the 1977 EuroBasket in Belgium was unavoidable.
Coach Aleksandar Nikolic had two great centers, Kresimir
Cosic and Jelovac, but the help of Radovanovic, especially
in the title game against Vladimir Tkachenko of
the USSR, was very important. Radovanovic averaged
7.3 points per game.
Radovanovic’s second golden year was 1978. Bosna,
finally, won the Yugoslav League and also the national
cup, while the national team won the gold medal
at the 1978 World Cup in the Philippines. Radovanovic
was one of the main players on the team. The duo of
Dalipagic (22.4) and Kicanovic (18.0) was unstoppable,
but the third-best scorer was Radovanovic at 12.3
points per game. He even started improving his free
throw percentage, a weak spot of his for many years. In
Manila, he reached 69% and some years later he would
even reach 80% – more proof that desire and hard work
can overcome any weaknesses.
Bosna, European champion
The best was yet to come. In the 1978-79 season,
Bosna started its first adventure in the EuroLeague –
and won it! As the first Yugoslav team to do so, as well.
It was a huge, but well-deserved, surprise. In the title
game, the opponent was a Varese team playing its 10th
straight continental final! A great game by Varajic (45
points, still the record in a title game) and Delibasic (30
points) is in the history books. But the unsung hero of
the game was Radovanovic.
“On the eve of the final, the team doctor told me that
Rasha had a fever, more than 39 degrees. I knew that
without him we could not win,” Tanjevic remembers.
“Varese had Dino Meneghin and Radovanovic was
the man who would have to stop him. Not even I could
imagine the game that Varajic and Delibasic would play,
but Radovanovic appeared and added 10 points, the
same as Meneghin. His sacrifice was huge, but he was
just that way. He was a great fighter, a very smart man
who tricked his opponents with technique and speed,
scoring with both hands and running the breaks. It was
a pleasure to work with him, to help him grow and be-
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come one of the best big men in the history of the game
in Europe. He had what only the greats have: the ability
to play even better when the team needs it the most.”
Svetislav Pesic, who was a Bosna teammate of Radovanovic’s
until 1979, and later his coach, says this:
“He was pure talent. He achieved a lot through hard
work, but without the talent that he had in his veins, he
would never have reached those heights. He was a very
fast player for his height; his legs resembled those of a
boxer in the lighter categories. Also, he didn’t know the
meaning of the word ‘fear’.”
Radovanovic was a staple in the national team. He
won bronze at the 1979 EuroBasket, then gold at the
1980 Olympics, silver at the 1981 EuroBasket and
bronze at the 1982 World Cup. He finished seventh
at the 1983 EuroBasket in France as Yugoslavia’s top
scorer (21.6 ppg) in front of Dalipagic (18.3), Kicanovic
(14.8) and Drazen Petrovic (13.4). Radovanovic came
back home from the 1984 Olympics with a new bronze
medal, then missed the 1985 EuroBasket, but was back
for the 1986 World Cup in Spain, where he won bronze
with 12 points per game. He also finished third, too, at
the 1987 EuroBasket in Athens with 9.4 points on average.
He was 31 years old and was now playing with
Vlade Divac, Dino Radja, Toni Kukoc and Sasha Djordjevic,
the inheritors of the previous golden generation.
Radovanovic was a bridge between those two great
generations of the Yugoslav national team. Altogether,
he won nine medals at major competitions.
With Bosna, Radovanovic won two more domestic
league titles, 1980 and 1983. At 27 years old he signed
with Stade France of Paris, where he played with Kicanovic.
Thanks to those two masters, a humble team
managed to finish in fourth place in France, but at the
end of the season, Kicanovic decided to retire at 31
years old! Radovanovic stayed for two more seasons,
and in 1984-85 his average was 20.7 points plus 8 rebounds
and 2.1 assists. In 1985-86, he averaged 18.1
points plus 6.3 rebounds. At 30 years old, he signed his
best contract with Reyer Venice. In four seasons there,
Radovanovic played 105 games and averaged 21.8
points and 7.1 rebounds. His individual highs were 35
points against Stefanel Trieste and 22 boards against
Varese. In Venice, he played with another teammate
from the national team, Dalipagic.
At 34 years old, Radovanovic retired and started a
business in Sarajevo, but then the war started. In 1972,
he arrived with a suitcase, and in 1992, he left with almost
nothing, but he held no grudge. He is a rich man
in his memory, proud of his career. He lives in Belgrade,
where he owns a café bar. He was sports director for
FMP Zeleznik for many years and became an important
figure in the growth of the small team of the industrial
suburb of Belgrade. He has stayed away from basketball
lately, but he will be back. Basketball needs him.
101 greats of european basketball
Ratko Radovanovic
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