NIKOLA PLECAS - 101 Greats of European Basketball

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Saint Nikola If someone were to ask me who were the best players ever from Zagreb, my answer would be Nikola Plecas (PLEH-chash), Mihovil Nakic and Zoran Cutura – in that order. Surprised? Where is Drazen Petrovic? And I would agree with you, but the catch is I am talking about players who left a big mark and were born or raised in Zagreb. Plecas was born on January 10, 1948 in Bruvno and arrived in Zagreb at age 6. He started his brilliant career there and, in fact, he still lives there, even if he is not very involved in basketball anymore. He’s from my generation and I admit a certain subjectivity towards him, but I do believe that the facts, numbers and witnesses justify his presence among the great players of the past. To introduce Plecas to the youngsters who were not lucky enough to see him in action, let me tell you a story about the first Korac Cup final in the 1971-72 season. FI- BA had established this competition to honor the great Serbian scorer Radivoj Korac, who passed way in a car crash on June 2, 1969. Only eight teams signed up: two from Spain (Manresa and Picadero JC), two from France (Olympique Antibes and Caen), two from Yugoslavia (Lokomotiva Zagreb and OKK Belgrade, Korac’s club of origin), and one each from Germany (USC Munich) and Belgium (Standard Liege). The first final featured the two Yugoslav teams, and the format was a home-and-away two-game series. I was at the game played in the old Sports Palace of New Belgrade on February 29, 1972. OKK won 83-71 despite 29 points scored by Plecas for Lokomotiva Zagreb, the guests. On March 7, the second game was played in Zagreb. At the break, OKK was ahead, 48-40, which added up to a 20-point aggregate advantage with the 12 from the first game. Basketball is a collective sport, but that game turned into evidence that a single player can win a game by himself. Lokomotiva ended up winning the game, 94-73 (54-25 in the second half) and took the trophy! Plecas finished the game with 40 points, most of them in the second half. Pero Zlatar, a prestigious Croatian journalist and president of Lokomotiva in the 1970s – before the club changed its name to Cibona, by the way – was the man who set the foundations of what would be one of the great clubs in Europe in the following years. Zlatar wrote an article about Plecas in which he said: “At the break in the final against OKK Belgrade, aside from trailing by 8 points, Lokomotiva was about to fall into the abyss because Plecas already had four fouls. Despite all that, he stepped on the court like a lion and in just a few minutes, Lokomotiva scored 21 points, most of them by Plecas, and allowed only 1. Plecas made each and every shot, from every position. It was unforgettable.” Zlatar also assures us that during the 1970s, Nikola Plecas was the most popular sportsman in Zagreb, ahead of the aces from other sports – football included. He was an idol for the fans, who dubbed him “Saint Nikola”. Duo with Solman There may have been no humbler club in the world than Mladost of Zagreb, which produced two world champions and an Olympic champion, who also won several European titles at the club and national team levels. I am referring to Mihovil Nakic, Damir Solman and Nikola Plecas. The latter two played together there, as they were the same age, and together they caught the attention of the big clubs. 101 greats of european basketball Nikola Plecas P
Vladimir Stankovic Lokomotiva wanted to sign both, but Jugoplastika offered Solman terms that the Zagreb club could not match, and therefore he went to Split. (That’s why he’s not on my Zagreb list, because he played most of his career in Split). Plecas decided to accept Lokomotiva’s offer, but Mladost wouldn’t release his papers. He had to spend 10 months without playing, but in the end the federation gave the green light, and Plecas was registered by Lokomotiva at noon on July 12, 1967. That same night he made his debut against Crvena Zvezda. He starred with 26 points. The Yugoslav League was still played during the summer, then, but would start to be played in arenas the following year. Lokomotiva won 106-96 against a strong Crvena Zvezda team with veterans Vladimir Cvetkovic and Sreten Dragojlovic, plus youngsters like Ljubodrag Simonovic, Dragan Kapicic and Dragisa Vucinic. Soon, in the Yugoslav Cup final, Lokomotiva defeated Olimpija 78-77 for what would become Plecas’s first big trophy. Although it was his debut in the league that year, Plecas was already an established talent. The flawless scouting service of the Yugoslav federation had all the top talents on file. Solman had made his debut in the national team in 1964 and Plecas did the same one year later, in the Balkans championship in Kraljevo, Serbia. Yugoslavia ended up second despite playing at home because it lost to Bulgaria. However, Coach Ranko Zeravica had four players on the team who, only five years later, would be world champions with him still on the bench. They were Plecas, Simonovic, Kapicic and Aljosa Zorga. Bogdan Tanjevic, a future great coach, was also there. Talk about vision. Zeravica took some youngsters to the 1967 EuroBasket in Helsinki, but not Plecas, whose debut on the great international stage was postponed until the 1968 Olympics in Mexico. He returned from Mexico with a silver medal around his neck, contributing 9 points per game. Triumph in Ljubljana Plecas’s career lasted until the late 1970s, but his peak came at the 1970 World Cup in Ljubljana. At only 22 years of age, he became a world champion with players like Kreso Cosic, Kapicic, Solman, Zorga and Simonovic, who was one year younger. In the decisive game against the United States, a 70-63 victory, Cosic netted 15 points, Petar Skansi scored 14 and Plecas had 12 points on 8-of-10 free throw shooting. He could always be identified by his moustache, but the following day, he honored a bet and shaved it off completely. The following year, Plecas got a call from Aleksandar Nikolic, the coach at Ignis Varese, the European champ at the time. The offer was for $60,000 per season to play at the Italian club, a lot of money back then, not at all comparable to what he was getting at Cibona. But he could not leave. The regulations of the federation said that players had to be at least 28 years old to play outside the country. Plecas played with the national team until 1975. He won gold medals at the 1973 EuroBasket in Barcelona (the first for Yugoslavia) and the 1975 EuroBasket in Belgrade. He had previously one two EuroBasket silver medals, in Naples in 1969 and in Essen in 1971, then added a silver at the 1974 World Cup in San Juan. Plecas also took part in the 1972 Olympics in Munich, where the team finished fifth. In the meantime, he was also a starter for his team every year. He broke countless records – in one game against Partizan, he scored 67 points – and he was the league’s top scorer twice, in 1969-70 (30.9 points per game) and 1974-75 (33.1). In between, the top scorer for the 1972-73 season was his friend Damir Solman for Jugoplastika (31.0). In researching data on Plecas, I found an interesting figure: between 1957 and 1982 – that’s 25 years – the 268 269
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NIKOLA PLECAS - 101 Greats of European Basketball

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