ZORAN SLAVNIC - 101 Greats of European Basketball

Zoran
Slavnic
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The first showman
To the long list of great players from the
past who never won the top European
title – among them Kresimir Cosic, Oscar
Schmidt, Dragan Kicanovic, Nikos Galis,
Drazen Dalipagic, Ivo Daneu and Juan Antonio
San Epifanio – I add one more: Zoran
“Moka” Slavnic. Without a doubt, he belongs to that
list of stars from the past.
He made up for the lack of trophies at the club level
with great triumphs playing for the Yugoslav national
team. Slavnic won eight major honors with the national
team. He was an Olympic champion in Moscow in 1980
and silver medalist in Montreal 1976. He was also a
world champ in 1978 in Manila and runner-up in that
competition in 1974 in San Juan. Slavnic also tasted
EuroBasket glory in 1973 in Barcelona, 1975 in Belgrade
and 1977 in Liege, in addition to a bronze medal in
1979 in Turin. In total, he earned eight medals in major
competitions over 10 years from his debut at the 1973
EuroBasket until his retirement after the 1983 edition
of the same tournament.
It might have been more, but Slavnic, who was born
on October 26, 1949, in Belgrade, did not make his debut
with the national team at a major competition until
he was 24 years old! It was Mirko Novosel who gave the
Crvena Zvezda guard a shot after the previous boss,
Ranko Zeravica, overlooked Slavnic. Zeravica considered
Slavnic “an undisciplined player.” What Zeravica
thought was wrong about Moka – who got his nickname
from childhood friends due to his love of mocha-flavored
cakes – was what Novosel thought to be his most
brilliant feature: creativity.
Slavnic was not your usual player. His imagination
was above any tactics or orders from a coach. He was,
simply put, the Improv King. He was guided by his gut,
always with the idea that basketball is just a game and
you had to have fun. Sometimes he had too much fun,
but he also gave fans a lot of joy. He was willing to do
anything to make people laugh, applaud or admire him.
He even caused hatred from opponents, who were ridiculed
by some of his plays; passes between the legs of
the rival, assists behind the back or some other invention
of his. At just 1.81 meters, Slavnic was not able to
dunk, but once on a fastbreak, he tried to do it anyway
– with a teammate who lifted him up! I would say that
Moka Slavnic was the first showman in European basketball.
Better late than never
As a junior player, Slavnic showed talent in many
sports, from handball to swimming to athletics and
basketball. His first coach in Crvena Zvezda, Zdravko
Kubat, soon saw the talent in him and paired him on a
team with Dragan Kapicic. Slavnic made his debut with
the Yugoslav junior national team in 1967 at the qualifying
tournament for the 1968 FIBA European Championship
for Junior Men in Vigo, Spain, where Yugoslavia
finished second after losing to the USSR in the final,
82-73. Along with Slavnic, there were players like Vinko
Jelovac, Ljubodrag Simonovic, Damir Solman, Dragisa
Vucinic, Mihajlo Manovic and Ivan Sarjanovic. Only two
years later, at the 1970 World Cup in Ljubljana, Slovenia,
several of them – Jelovac, Simonovic, Solman and Kapicic
– were world champs at 22 years old, while Slavnic
could only watch the games on TV.
101 greats of european basketball
Zoran Slavnic
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Vladimir Stankovic
Slavnic made his official debut with the Yugoslav
first team in 1970 in some exhibition games, but Zeravica
didn’t trust him and he didn’t play in the 1971 Euro-
Basket or the 1972 Olympics in Munich. With his special
sense of humor, Slavnic accepted the situation, saying
of Zeravica, “Even the best are also wrong sometimes.”
He added with irony that Zeravica “made my career longer
because I started to damage myself later.”
At the 1973 EuroBasket in Barcelona, where Yugoslavia
won its first medal, Slavnic finished the tournament
with 8.1 points per game. He made the national
team and did not leave it until he retired in 1983 after
EuroBasket in Nantes. His career average was 8.3
points per game, with his highest being 12.5 points at
the 1976 Olympics in Montreal. It was there that Slavnic
scored one of the most important baskets of his career.
In the game against Italy to decide the second semifinalist,
the Italians were ahead at the break, 57-41. It
looked like a desperate situation, but little by little the
Yugoslavs trimmed the deficit. On the game’s last possession,
with the ball in their hands, the Blues were only
one point down. After good ball circulation, Slavnic was
left open, and from about 7 meters out, he scored at
the buzzer the basket that would take Yugoslavia to the
semis and later to the final.
During those 10 years, Slavnic was the starting
point guard of a great Yugoslav team. In the end, he
played 179 games (150 wins, 29 losses) and scored
1,465 points. Scoring was not his thing, but he is still
one of the best scorers in the history of the national
team. The ball in his hands was like it had been inside
a safe. He turned over very few balls and he had many
more steals. He was good at shooting and especially
had great court vision for unbelievable assists. Usually,
the starting five on the team was Slavnic, Kicanovic,
Dalipagic, Jelovac (or Zeljko Jerkov) and Cosic. Even
though he had the ball in his hands most of the time,
Slavnic himself acknowledged that Kreso Cosic was the
leader of that team. For Slavnic, and many others, Cosic
was the best Yugoslav player ever.
If Cosic was the basketball leader, Slavnic surely was
the main attraction. He was also willing to joke or find
a way to motivate his teammates. At the 1978 World
Cup in Manila, in a crucial moment during a tough game
against Brazil, the team was in a timeout just before
Mirza Delibasic was to take free throws. Slavnic offered
a bet to Mirza: “I bet you 100 dollars that you do not
score both attempts.”
Delibasic took the bet and calmly scored both free
throws, which was what Moka wanted.
With Crvena Zvezda, Slavnic won two Yugoslav
League titles, in 1962 and 1972. He played twice in
the EuroLeague, but without remarkable results. He
would not be empty-handed at the club level, however.
After losing the 1972 Saporta Cup final in Thessaloniki
against Simmenthal Milano 74-70, despite Slavnic’s 12
points, Crvena Zvezda won the same competition in
1974 in Udine, Italy. The team beat Spartak Brno 86-
75 with 20 points by Slavnic, 19 by Simonovic and 23
by Kapicic. The following year, in the final of the same
competition in Nantes, Zvezda lost to Spartak Saint
Petersburg, led by Aleksandar Belov, 63-62. Slavnic
scored 21 points, but Simonovic (5) and Kapicic (3)
were not at their expected level. Slavnic made his debut
in the Crvena Zvezda first team in 1968-69 under coach
Milan Bjegojevic and stayed through 1977, playing 222
games and scoring 2,829 points (12.7 ppg.) for the club.
Champion with Joventut
After the 1977 EuroBasket in Belgium, Slavnic
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moved to Spain and signed with Joventut Badalona.
There, he found competitive teammates – Josep Maria
Margall, Luis Miguel Santillana, Joan Filba and Manuel
Bosch – who just needed a floor general. Slavnic’s profile
fit perfectly and the team won the Spanish League in
1977-78. He stayed one more season in Badalona and
after that he joined Sibenka, where he was player-coach
and allowed a 15-year old Drazen Petrovic to play his
first minutes. Despite being known for having said “I
hate Partizan more than I love Crvena Zvezda,” Slavnic
played for Partizan in the 1981-82 season. Slavnic finished
his career with Juventus Caserta in Italy with fair
numbers: 17.2 points, 3.4 rebounds and 3.3 assists in
37 minutes per game.
After a brilliant playing career, Slavnic turned to
coaching, but he was far less successful. He had a good
eye for young talent, however, and encouraged the debut
of many young players. He started in Sibenka with
Petrovic and then did the same in Jugoplastika with
players like Toni Kukoc and Dino Radja. The same thing
happened for Partizan, with Sasha Djordjevic and Dragan
Tarlac, as well as for Crvena Zvezda, with Sasa Obradovic.
Slavnic worked in Spain and Germany and for
the 2007 EuroBasket of Spain, where he achieved his
dream of coaching the Yugoslav national team. However,
Slavnic’s place in history is as a player – a great one.
Zoran Slavnic
101 greats of european basketball
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