ZELJKO REBRACA - 101 Greats of European Basketball

Zeljko
Rebraca
283

Blocks master
The year was 1987. The place was Pula, on
the coast of Croatia’s Istria peninsula.
The event was a FIBA youth camp. The
main teaching guest was the great Sergei
Belov. The protagonists were young
talents from all over Europe. Current
Philadelphia 76ers scout Marin Sedlacek, one of the
coaches at that camp and a long-time coach of the
World Select Team at the annual Nike Hoop Summit,
highlighted two kids from the class of 1987: Zeljko
Rebraca and Dragan Tarlac.
“I cannot say for sure that back then if you could
clearly see that they would be future European and
world champs, or players that would end up in the NBA,
but it was clear they had good predispositions,” Sedlacek
told me later. “Tarlac caught everyone’s attention
more because he was stronger, while Rebraca was
pretty thin and his body didn’t show that he could do
big things in basketball. But with years of great work,
he managed to earn his place in basketball. Back then,
at 15 years old, he was taller than 2 meters and had a
knack for blocking shots. I was impressed with the ease
with which he blocked the shots of stronger rivals. He
had great timing for when to jump and long hands.”
Zeljko Rebraca, who was born April 9, 1972, in Prigrevica,
Serbia, was not an unknown player at 15 years
old. He played in OKK Apatin and his first coach was
Vlado Tasevski. When he turned 16, Rebraca moved to
Novi Sad to try his luck on bigger teams. Talent scouting
in the former Yugoslavia worked well, so it was unusual
that good talent went unnoticed. For the FIBA European
Championship for Junior Men in 1990, in the Netherlands,
coach Dusko Vujosevic gathered a solid team,
including Dejan Bodiroga, Velko Mrsic, Nikola Loncar, Roman
Horvat, Mladjan Silobad, Rebraca and Tarlac, among
others. The team finished fifth, with losses against
Romania with Gheorghe Muresan, Spain with Alfonso
Reyes, and Poland with Maciej Zielinski. But most of all it
gained players, especially Bodiroga, Tarlac and Rebraca,
three future European and world champions. The same
coach used almost the same team the following year to
play the 1991 FIBA World Championship for Junior Men
in Edmonton, Canada. Yugoslavia would finish fourth as
Rebraca raised his numbers from 5.9 points in the Netherlands
to 9.1 points per game in Canada.
During the 1990-91 season, Sasha Djordjevic, the
point guard for Partizan and the national team, served in
the military in Novi Sad. From time to time he practiced
with the NAP team, a humble club at which two future
world champs took their first steps: Rebraca (in 1998)
and Milan Gurovic (2002). With the great nose of a future
coach, Djordjevic sensed the huge potential in Rebraca
and secretly took him to two practices with Partizan –
Novi Sad is only 70 kilometers from Belgrade – and recommended
that the club sign him. Said and done.
“One day, without permission from the military authorities,
I escaped by car from Novi Sad with Rebraca,”
Djordjevic recalled to me. “We sent a message to his
coach saying he was sick. I was sure he was a future star.”
In that summer of 1991, Rebraca, who was just 19
years old, signed with Partizan. Nobody expected a lot
from him because of his young age and his inexperience,
but a debut coach – Zeljko Obradovic – and a legend
who happened to be his consultant – Aleksandar
Nikolic – saw a future superstar in the thin kid. Rebraca
soon made it into the starting five with Djordjevic, Pre-
101 greats of european basketball
Zeljko Rebraca
R

Vladimir Stankovic
drag Danilovic, Ivo Nakic and Slavisa Koprivica. In April
of the next spring, together with Silobad, Loncar, Vladimir
Dragutinovic, Zoran Stevanovic and Dragisa Saric,
this would win the 1992 EuroLeague title, Partizan’s
first and only continental crown. In the semis, Partizan
defeated Olimpia Milano, and in the final, Djordjevic and
his famous three-pointer on the run near the buzzer
snatched the title from Joventut Badalona.
In the career of Rebraca, nothing after that happened
suddenly. His way was slow but steady. His progression
coincided with the development of his body. With each
kilo he gained and each muscle that got bigger, that body
shouted “superstar”. His specialty was, of course, blocking
shots. His super-long arms terrified opponents, while
the rest of his game, both on defense and offense, was
like life insurance for his coaches. He was one of the rational
players: high shooting percentages, secure from the
line, good rebounder and excellent blocker. Coaches knew
it for sure: it was just a matter of time before he exploded.
Rebraca was still green, especially in the physical aspect,
when he entered the 1994 NBA Draft and ended up being
picked 54th. Before even entering the NBA, his draft rights
were traded to a number of teams, going from Seattle to
Minnesota to Toronto and then Detroit – the last of those
moves coming in 2001. But the NBA would have to wait.
three years of isolation due to international sanctions.
The team returned in Sofia in a qualifying tournament that
FIBA created after the country missed the 1992 Olympics
in Barcelona, the 1993 EuroBasket in Germany and the
1994 World Cup in Canada. Yugoslavia advanced and
made the 1995 EuroBasket in Athens. With its own version
of the Dream Team – Djordjevic, Danilovic, Bodiroga,
Vlade Divac, Zarko Paspalj, Zoran Savic, Sasa Obradovic
and Dejan Tomasevic, Rebraca was too young to have an
important role, but his 4.8 points and 3.6 rebounds were
still part of the gold medal won by his team. In the title
game against Lithuania, Rebraca only scored 1 point and
grabbed 1 rebound, but he played 14 minutes, meaning
that coaches Dusan Ivkovic and Zeljko Obradovic counted
on him. The following year, his worth was re-confirmed as
Yugoslavia won the 1996 Olympics silver medal in Atlanta
with Rebraca contributing 10.6 points and 3.8 rebounds.
In Treviso, Rebraca started working with coach Mike
D’Antoni. In the 1996-97 season, the team won the
Italian League after a dramatic final series. Benetton
defeated Teamsystem Bologna 3-2. Rebraca shined,
especially in the fourth game, which Benetton won 79-
67 at home in overtime. Rebraca scored 32 points and
pulled 12 rebounds in 41 minutes. Benetton also won
Game 5 with 6 points and 8 rebounds by Rebraca.
To Italy with D’Antoni
After four years, 110 games, 1,292 points, two domestic
league titles, two cups and one EuroLeague crown
with Partizan, the time came for Rebraca to take a new
step in his career. Maurizio Gherardini, then the general
manager of Benetton Treviso, with his impeccable eye
for young talent, decided to sign Rebraca in the summer
of 1996. Before moving to Italy, Rebraca made his debut
with the Yugoslav national team, which reappeared after
Again with Obradovic
The summer of 1997 saw Yugoslavia repeat the
continental title at the Barcelona EuroBasket. Rebraca
was the third-best scorer on his team, after only Danilovic
and Djordjevic, with 11.1 points, and was its top
rebounder with 5.0 rebounds per game. The coach was
Zeljko Obradovic, who would leave Real Madrid that
summer to sign with Benetton. Right off the bat, the
team won the Italian Supercup against Kinder Bologna,
284
285

78-58, with 12 points from Rebraca. In the 1997-98
EuroLeague, Benetton reached the Final Four played
in Barcelona but fell to AEK Athens in the semis 69-66.
Getting third place by beating Partizan 96-89 was no
big consolation. The following year, Benetton lost the
Italian Cup final to Kinder 73-55, but Rebraca’s empty
season at the club level was compensated with a Yugoslavia
win at the 1998 World Cup in Athens. Even though
the MVP of the tourney was Bodiroga, many believed
that Rebraca deserved the accolade because he averaged
13.1 points and 9.1 rebounds. In the final, a 64-62
win against Russia, Rebraca was the key man with 16
points and 11 rebounds. The all-tournament team included
Rebraca, Bodiroga, Vasily Karasev, Alberto Herreros
and Gregor Fucka. At the end of the year, at a FIBA
all-star event in Berlin – where he had 14 points and 10
rebounds and was MVP of the game – Rebraca received
the award for best European player of the year, chosen
in a survey of the magazine FIBA Basketball Monthly,
which gave the award an official status.
In Rebraca’s third season, Benetton ended up with a
triumph in the Saporta Cup. On April 13, 1999, in Zaragoza,
Spain, Benetton defeated Pamesa Valencia 64-60 with
6 points and 5 rebounds by Rebraca. It was his second
European trophy, again with Obradovic on the bench.
After four years, 143 games, 2,029 points (14.3 per
game) and 6.5 rebounds in Treviso, Rebraca moved
with Obradovic to Panathinaikos, where he played with
his friend and national teammate Dejan Bodiroga. At
the 2000 Final Four in Thessaloniki, Panathinaikos defeated
Efes Pilsen in the semifinal, 81-71, with 22 points
from Bodiroga and 15 from Rebraca. In the title game,
the Greens overcame Maccabi Tel Aviv, their biggest
rival at the turn of the century, by the score of 82-74.
Rebraca was brilliant, with 20 points and 8 rebounds in
30 minutes. He made 5 of 6 field goals and 10 of 14 free
throws. Of course, he was chosen MVP.
That season, Panathinaikos also won the Greek
League and Greek Cup, with Rebraca being voted MVP
of the league. His big dream was winning the gold medal
with Yugoslavia in the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, but Steve
Nash and Canada ended that dream in the quarterfinals.
Going to the NBA
Eventually, in the summer of 2001, at 29 years old,
Rebraca decided to try the NBA. He spent more than six
seasons there, suffering several injuries that kept him
sidelined. He played for Detroit, Atlanta and the Los
Angeles Clippers for a total 215 games, averaging 5.9
points and 3.2 rebounds. As in Europe, his main asset
was that you could always count on getting what you
expected from him. He was not a star in the NBA, but
he was a solid player.
I was a direct witness to almost all of Rebraca’s
successes in Europe. The trophies he won in Istanbul,
Zaragoza and Thessaloniki, the gold medals at the
1995 and 1997 EuroBaskets, the Olympic silver in Atlanta
1996, the World Cup gold in 1998. But I also saw
his disappointments in Sydney 2000 and, especially,
the Belgrade EuroBasket in 2005. Obradovic was back
to the bench of the national team after five years away,
just like Rebraca. It was to be the perfect goodbye at
home to Bodiroga, Tomasevic and Rebraca. But in one
of the biggest upsets in EuroBasket history, Yugoslavia
was eliminated in the Play-Off stage by the Tony Parker-led
France 74-71.
He now lives in Apatin, his childhood town, away
from basketball. He loves the Danube River and family
life. He has three kids, two girls and a boy, and many
nice memories from his career.
101 greats of european basketball
Zeljko Rebraca
A