Croatia men's national basketball team

Croatia Hrvatska

FIBA ranking	12 4
Joined FIBA	1992
FIBA zone	FIBA Europe
National federation	Croatian Basketball Federation
Coach	Velimir Perasović
Olympic Games
Appearances	3 (First in 1992)
Medals	Silver: 1992
FIBA World Cup
Appearances	3 (First in 1994)
Medals	Bronze: 1994
FIBA EuroBasket
Appearances	12 (First in 1993)
Medals	Bronze: 1993, 1995
Uniforms
Light Dark

The Croatia men's national basketball team (Croatian: hrvatska muška košarkaška reprezentacija) represents Croatia at international basketball tournaments. It is organized by the Croatian Basketball Federation (Croatian: Hrvatski košarkaški savez).

The biggest success Croatia has achieved was at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics when the team reached the finals against the United States team and won the silver medal. Croatia has also won one bronze medal at the FIBA World Cup and two bronze medals at the FIBA EuroBasket.

Croatia's Krešimir Ćosić, Dražen Petrović, and Mirko Novosel are members of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, Ćosić being inducted in 1996 as a player, Petrović in 2002, also as a player, and Novosel in 2007, as a coach. Petrović, Ćosić, and Novosel are also members of the FIBA Hall of Fame.

History

Prior to Croatian independence

Croatia played its first unofficial friendly game on 2 June 1964 in Karlovac. Croatian team played against US All Star Team and lost 65:110 (31:50). USA players coached by Red Auerbach were Bob Cousy, Tom Heinsohn, K. C. Jones, Jerry Lucas, Bob Pettit, Oscar Robertson and Bill Russel and Croatian team was Giuseppe Gjergja, Nemanja Đurić, Živko Kasun, Zlatko Kiseljak, Slobodan Kolaković, Dragan Kovačić, Boris Križan, Stjepan Ledić, Mirko Novosel, Marko Ostarčević, Petar Skansi and Željko Troskot.

Independent Croatia

After independence of Croatia in 1991, the first official tournament played by Croatians were 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona. Croatia defeated CIS team 75:74 and reached the finals against USA Dream Team led by Michael Jordan. USA won 85:117 but Croatia won its first medal at major tournaments in history.

Next tournament was 1993 EuroBasket in Germany. Tragically, before the championship Dražen Petrović died in a car accident on 7 June 1993 at the age of 28. Croatia still managed to reach bronze medal beating Greece 99:59.

Croatia reached its third medal at 1994 FIBA World Championship in Canada. Croatia lost semifinals 64:66 against Russia but again beat Greece 78:60 for the bronze medal. Similar happened at 1995 EuroBasket in Greece. Croatia lost semifinals 80:90 against Lithuania but beat Greece 73:68 for the third time in a row in a bronze medal match. That medal was to date the last Croatian medal from major tournaments. At 1996 Summer Olympics Croatia won the 7th place.

Decline

At 1997 Eurobasket in Spain new Croatian generation emerged and ended in 11th place. Croatia failed to qualify at 2000, 2004 and 2012 Summer Olympics but ended 6th in 2008. Croatia also failed to qualify to 1998, 2002 and 2006 World Championships, best result being 14th place at 2010. At EuroBaskets Croatia's best results were 6th places at 2007 and 2009.

Competitive record

Olympic Games

Competitive record at the Summer Olympic Games

Year	Round	Position	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	PD
1936 to 1988	Part of Yugoslavia
1992	Final		8	6	2	681	656	+25
1996	Quarterfinal	7th	8	4	4	662	622	+40
2000	Did not qualify
2004
2008	Quarterfinal	6th	6	3	3	458	452	+6
2012	Did not qualify
2016
Total	Qualified: 3/7		22	13	9	1801	1730	+71

Record against other teams at the Summer Olympic Games

National team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	PD
Angola	2	2	0	144	112	+32
Argentina	2	1	1	143	152	−9
Australia	3	2	1	266	220	+46
Brazil	2	1	1	163	154	+9
China	2	2	0	208	163	+45
CIS	1	1	0	75	74	+1
Iran	1	1	0	91	57	+34
Lithuania	2	0	2	154	169	−15
Germany	1	1	0	99	78	+21
Russia	1	1	0	85	78	+7
Spain	2	1	1	147	151	−4
United States	3	0	3	226	322	−96
Total	12 teams

FIBA World Cup

Competitive record at the FIBA World Cup

Year	Round	Position	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	PD
1950 to 1990	Part of Yugoslavia
1994	Semifinal		8	7	1	692	502	+190
1998	Did not qualify
2002
2006
2010	Round of 16	14th	6	2	4	467	480	−13
2014	Round of 16	10th	6	3	3	478	467	+11
2019	Qualification in progress
Total	Qualified: 3/6		20	12	8	1637	1449	+188

Record against other teams at the FIBA World Cup

National team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	PD
Argentina	1	1	0	90	85	+5
Australia	1	1	0	83	69	+14
Brazil	1	0	1	74	92	−18
Canada	1	1	0	92	61	+31
China	1	1	0	105	73	+32
Cuba	1	1	0	85	65	+20
France	1	0	1	64	69	-5
Greece	3	2	1	224	191	+33
Iran	1	1	0	75	54	+21
Philippines	1	1	0	81	78	+3
Puerto Rico	1	1	0	103	82	+21
Russia	1	0	1	64	66	−2
Senegal	1	0	1	75	77	-2
Serbia	1	0	1	72	73	−1
Slovenia	1	0	1	84	91	−7
South Korea	1	1	0	104	53	+51
Tunisia	1	1	0	84	64	+20
United States	1	0	1	78	106	−28
Total	18 teams

EuroBasket

Competitive record at EuroBasket

Year	Round	Position	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	PD
1935 to 1991	Part of Yugoslavia
1993	Semifinal		9	8	1	864	679	+185
1995	Semifinal		9	8	1	758	683	+75
1997	Second Round	11th	8	2	6	619	620	−1
1999	Second Round	9th	6	3	3	444	454	−10
2001	Quarterfinal	7th	8	2	6	619	620	−1
2003	Second Round	11th	4	1	3	318	304	+14
2005	Quarterfinal	7th	7	4	3	566	564	+2
2007	Quarterfinal	6th	9	3	6	704	704	0
2009	Quarterfinal	6th	9	4	5	646	648	−2
2011	Preliminary Round	13th	5	2	3	396	404	−8
2013	Semifinal	4th	11	8	3	805	801	+4
2015	Round of 16	9th	6	3	3	418	423	-5
TBD 2017	Qualification in progress
Total	Qualified: 12/12		85	45	40	7157	6904	+253
Including qualifying rounds			136	86	50	11561	10474	+1087

Record against other teams at EuroBasket

National team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	PD
Belgium	1	1	0	106	74	+32
Bosnia and Herzegovina	3	2	1	243	229	+14
Bulgaria	2	2	0	192	165	+27
Czech Republic	2	2	0	156	117	+39
Estonia	2	2	0	179	149	+30
Finland	3	3	0	264	219	+45
France	7	3	4	566	566	0
Georgia	1	1	0	77	76	+1
Germany	7	3	4	559	559	0
Greece	7	3	4	555	523	+32
Israel	2	1	1	161	159	+2
Italy	6	5	1	424	394	+30
Latvia	2	1	1	170	176	−6
Lithuania	5	0	5	356	417	−61
Macedonia	2	1	1	157	149	+8
Montenegro	1	1	0	97	81	+16
Poland	2	1	1	150	147	+3
Portugal	1	1	0	90	68	+22
Russia	7	3	4	550	547	+3
Serbia	2	0	2	128	144	−16
Slovenia	4	2	2	312	313	−1
Spain	6	2	4	427	493	−66
Turkey	6	3	3	503	430	+73
Ukraine	3	2	1	265	238	+27
Total	24 teams
Including qualifying rounds	34 teams

Competitive record in qualifying rounds

Year	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	PD	Qual
1993	7	6	1	763	570	+193	yes
1995	6	5	1	510	438	+72	yes
1997	10	7	3	823	647	+176	yes
1999	10	7	3	813	711	+102	yes
2001	10	10	0	856	693	+163	yes
2003	10	8	2	834	724	+110	yes
2005	4	3	1	312	268	+44	yes
2007	6	5	1	498	397	+101	yes
2009	6th from 2007 EuroBasket						yes
2011	6th from 2009 EuroBasket						yes
2013	8	8	0	685	539	+146	yes
2015	4th from 2013 EuroBasket						yes
TBD 2017	Qualification in progress						TBD
Total	71	59	12	6094	4987	+1107	12/12

Record against other teams in qualifying rounds

National team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	PD
Austria	2	2	0	160	149	+11
Belarus	1	1	0	112	72	+40
Belgium	2	2	0	176	129	+47
Bosnia and Herzegovina	4	2	2	295	267	+28
Bulgaria	2	1	1	173	148	+25
Cyprus	4	4	0	368	224	+144
Denmark	2	2	0	183	146	+37
England	2	2	0	163	149	+14
Estonia	5	4	1	417	350	+67
Germany	2	0	2	144	159	-15
Hungary	4	4	0	316	268	+48
Iceland	2	2	0	193	151	+42
Ireland	2	2	0	165	145	+20
Latvia	5	5	0	466	371	+95
Lithuania	2	1	1	137	140	-3
Macedonia	3	3	0	312	232	+80
Netherlands	4	4	0	331	265	+66
Romania	3	3	0	342	206	+136
Russia	2	1	1	151	138	+13
Slovakia	4	4	0	355	277	+53
Slovenia	1	0	1	90	94	-4
Sweden	4	3	1	320	289	+31
Switzerland	2	2	0	176	127	+49
Turkey	2	1	1	133	121	+12
Ukraine	5	4	1	416	370	+46
Total	25 teams

Team

Current roster

This is the roster for the 2015 EuroBasket.

Croatia men's national basketball team roster
Players	Coaches
Pos. # Name Age – Date of birth Ht. Club Ctr. C 4 Tomić, Ante – (1987-02-17)17 February 1987 2.17 m (7 ft 1 in) Barcelona PF 5 Rudež, Damjan – (1986-06-17)17 June 1986 2.08 m (6 ft 10 in) Minnesota Timberwolves PG 6 Stipčević, Rok – (1986-05-20)20 May 1986 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in) Dinamo Sassari SG 7 Bogdanović, Bojan – (1989-04-18)18 April 1989 2.00 m (6 ft 7 in) Brooklyn Nets PF 8 Šarić, Dario – (1994-04-08)8 April 1994 2.08 m (6 ft 10 in) Anadolu Efes SG 9 Tomas, Marko – (1985-01-03)3 January 1985 2.06 m (6 ft 9 in) TED Ankara Kolejliler PG 10 Ukić, Roko (C) – (1984-12-05)5 December 1984 1.96 m (6 ft 5 in) Free agent SG 11 Simon, Krunoslav – (1985-06-24)24 June 1985 1.97 m (6 ft 6 in) Armani Milano PG 13 Draper, Dontaye – (1984-08-10)10 August 1984 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in) Lokomotiv Kuban C 15 Bilan, Miro – (1989-07-21)21 July 1989 2.15 m (7 ft 1 in) Cedevita C 21 Žorić, Luka – (1984-11-05)5 November 1984 2.11 m (6 ft 11 in) Fenerbahce SF 23 Hezonja, Mario – (1995-02-25)25 February 1995 2.01 m (6 ft 7 in) Orlando Magic	Head coach Velimir Perasović Assistant coaches Dario Gjergja Aramis Naglić Legend (C) Team captain Club – describes last club before the tournament Age – describes age on 5 September 2015

Depth chart

Pos.	Starting 5	Bench 1	Bench 2	Bench 3
C	Ante Tomić	Luka Žorić	Miro Bilan
PF	Dario Šarić	Damjan Rudež
SF	Mario Hezonja	Marko Tomas
SG	Bojan Bogdanović	Krunoslav Simon
PG	Roko Ukić	Rok Stipčević	Dontaye Draper

Head coaches

• Petar Skansi (1992)
• Mirko Novosel (1993)
• Giuseppe Gjergja (1994)
• Aleksandar Petrović (1995)

• Petar Skansi (1996–1998)
• Boško Božić (1999)
• Aleksandar Petrović (2000–2001)
• Neven Spahija (2002–2005)

• Jasmin Repeša (2005–2009)
• Josip Vranković (2010–2011)
• Jasmin Repeša (2012–2014)
• Velimir Perasović (2015)

Notable players

• Dražen Petrović
  • 6× European Player of the Year:
  • 4× Euroscar Award (1986, 1989, 1992–1993)
  • 2× Mr. Europa Award (1986, 1993)
  • All-NBA Third Team (1993)
  • FIBA World Championship MVP (1986)
  • FIBA's 50 Greatest Players (1991)
  • 50 Greatest Euroleague Contributors
  • FIBA Hall of Fame induction (2007)
  • Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame induction (2002)
  • No. 3 Retired by the New Jersey Nets

• Toni Kukoč
  • 3× NBA champion (1996–1998)
  • NBA Sixth Man of the Year (1996)
  • NBA All-Rookie Second Team (1994)
  • 3× Euroleague Final Four MVP (1990–1991, 1993)
  • 9× European Basketball Player of the Year
  • Euroscar (1990–1991, 1994, 1996, 1998)
  • Mr. Europa (1990–1992, 1996)
  • FIBA World Championship MVP (1990)
  • EuroBasket MVP (1991)
  • FIBA's 50 Greatest Players (1991)
  • 50 Greatest Euroleague Contributors

• Dino Rađa
  • NBA All-Rookie Second Team (1994)
  • Euroleague Final Four MVP (1989)
  • FIBA's 50 Greatest Players (1991)
  • 50 Greatest Euroleague Contributors (2008)

• Nikola Vujčić
  • 3× All-Euroleague First Team: (2005, 2006, 2007)
  • 2× All-Euroleague Second Team: (2003, 2004)
  • Euroleague All-Decade Team 2001–10
• Žan Tabak
  • NBA champion (1995)
  • 3× Euroleague champion (1989–1991)

Statistics

Record against other teams

As of 14 Sep 2015

National team	Total			Olympic Games			World Championship			European Championship			Mediterranean Games			Qualifications			Tournaments
	Pld	W	L	Pld	W	L	Pld	W	L	Pld	W	L	Pld	W	L	Pld	W	L	Pld	W	L
Albania	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	0
Angola	2	2	0	2	2	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	0	0	0
Argentina	3	2	1	2	1	1	1	1	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	0	0	0
Australia	4	3	1	3	2	1	1	1	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	0	0	0
Austria	2	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	2	2	0
Belarus	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	1	1	0
Belgium	3	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	—	—	—	2	2	0
Bosnia and Herzegovina	7	4	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	2	1	0	0	0	4	2	2
Brazil	3	1	2	2	1	1	1	0	1	—	—	—	—	—	—	0	0	0
Bulgaria	4	3	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	2	0	—	—	—	2	1	1
Cameroon	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	1	1	0
Canada	2	2	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	1	1	0
China	3	3	0	2	2	0	1	1	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	0	0	0
Cuba	1	1	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	0	0	0
Cyprus	4	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	4	4	0
Czech Republic*	4	3	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	2	1	—	—	—	1	1	0
Denmark	2	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	2	2	0
England	2	2	0	—	—	—	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	2	2	0
Estonia	7	6	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	2	0	—	—	—	5	4	1
Finland	3	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	3	0	—	—	—	0	0	0
France	8	3	5	0	0	0	1	0	1	7	3	4	0	0	0	0	0	0
Georgia	2	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	1	1	—	—	—	0	0	0
Germany	12	5	7	1	1	0	0	0	0	7	3	4	—	—	—	4	1	3
Great Britain	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	0	0	0
Greece	14	8	6	0	0	0	3	2	1	8	3	5	2	2	0	1	1	0
Hungary	4	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	4	4	0
Iceland	3	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	3	3	0
Iran	2	2	0	1	1	0	1	1	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	0	0	0
Ireland	2	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	2	2	0
Israel	3	2	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	1	1	—	—	—	1	1	0
Italy	8	7	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	6	5	1	1	1	0	1	1	0
Latvia	7	6	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	1	1	—	—	—	5	5	0
Lithuania	10	1	9	2	0	2	0	0	0	5	0	5	—	—	—	3	1	2
Macedonia	6	5	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	2	1	0	0	0	3	3	0
Montenegro	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Morocco	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	1	1	0	0	0	0
Netherlands	5	5	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	—	—	—	4	4	0
Philippines	1	1	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	0	0	0
Poland	2	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	1	1	—	—	—	0	0	0
Portugal	2	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	—	—	—	1	1	0
Puerto Rico	2	2	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	1	1	0
Romania	4	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	4	4	0
Russia**	13	7	6	2	2	0	1	0	1	7	3	4	—	—	—	3	2	1
Senegal	1	0	1	0	0	0	1	0	1	—	—	—	—	—	—	0	0	0
Serbia***	4	1	3	0	0	0	1	0	1	2	0	2	1	1	0	0	0	0
Slovakia	4	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	4	4	0
Slovenia	8	4	4	0	0	0	1	0	1	5	3	2	0	0	0	2	1	1
South Korea	1	1	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	0	0	0
Spain	8	3	5	2	1	1	0	0	0	6	2	4	0	0	0	0	0	0
Sweden	4	3	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	4	3	1
Switzerland	2	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	2	2	0
Tunisia	1	1	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	—	—	—	0	0	0	0	0	0
Turkey	8	4	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	6	3	3	0	0	0	2	1	1
Ukraine	8	6	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	2	1	—	—	—	5	4	1
United States	4	0	4	3	0	3	1	0	1	—	—	—	—	—	—	0	0	0
Total (55)	224	151	73

• *includes games against Czechoslovakia
• **includes games against CIS and Soviet Union
• ***includes games against Serbia and Montenegro

Biggest Wins

20+ point difference

Olympic Games

• +34 vs. Iran (91–57) 2008
• +33 vs. Australia (98–65) 1992
• +31 vs. China (109–78) 1996
• +23 vs. Angola (71–48) 1996
• +21 vs. Germany (99–78) 1992

World Championship

• +51 vs. South Korea (104–53) 1994
• +32 vs. China (105–73) 1994
• +31 vs. Canada (92–61) 1994
• +26 vs. Greece (81–55) 1994
• +21 vs. Iran (75–54) 2010
• +20 vs. Cuba (85–65)1994
• +20 vs. Tunisia (84–64) 2010

EuroBasket

• +50 vs. Turkey (113–63) 1993
• +40 vs. Greece (99–59) 1993
• +32 vs. Belgium (106–74) 1993
• +25 vs. Finland (88–63) 2013
• +22 vs. Turkey (90–68) 1995
• +22 vs. Czech Republic (86–64) 1999
• +22 vs. Ukraine (93–71) 2003
• +22 vs. Portugal (90–68) 2007
• +21 vs. Bulgaria (104–83) 1993
• +20 vs. Bosnia and Herzegovina (98–78) 1993
• +20 vs. Germany (75–55) 1997

Mediterranean Games

• +24 vs. Albania (94–70) 2009

Qualifications

• +73 vs. Iceland (124-51) 1992
• +52 vs. Portugal (109-57) 1992
• +46 vs. Italy (108-62) 1992
• +39 vs. Greece (102-63) 1992
• +23 vs. Slovenia (93-70) 1992

Biggest Losses

-20+ point difference

Olympic Games

• -33 vs. USA (70–103) 1992
• -32 vs. USA (85–117) 1992
• -31 vs. USA (71–102) 1996
• -24 vs. Argentina (53–77) 2008

World Championship

• -28 vs. USA (78–106) 2010

EuroBasket

• -28 vs. Spain (68–40) 2013
• -26 vs. Spain (92–66) 2013

See also

• Croatia women's national basketball team
• Croatia men's national 3x3 team

External links

• Official website
• FIBA profile
• Eurobasket.com