WRITTEN BY DENNIS FISTONIĆ
The Croatia Men’s National Basketball team will play their first group game of the FIBA World Championships against the mighty USA on Saturday in Turkey. Croatia is listed as heavy underdogs as they currently have no players in the NBA. However, it does gives us Hrvati a chance to remember the team from the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona who came away with Silver.
THE GREAT DRAŽEN PETROVIĆ
The 1992 National Team had names such as Petrović, Rađa, Kukoč, Tabak and Vranković. Croatia, in group stage play, went 4-1, as their only defeat was to the USA. In the semifinals, the Croats defeated the Soviets by one point to narrowly squeak by and make it to the Gold Medal Game. They eventually lost in the final to the Dream Team, the greatest team ever assembled on the hardcourt, by 32 points.
The 1992 basketball squad can be compared to the Golden Generation of the 1998 World Cup team in that we may never see a collection of players like that again at one time in our lifetime. The game on Saturday can be seen ESPN CLASSIC at 3 EST in the US as well as ESPN3.com.
Huge game for Croatia against the "friendly" Slovenia in just about a few hours. Not a must win match for Croatia, as the top 4 advance to the round of 16. A possible round of 16 match with Serbia is possible.
i remember when we played the greeks and we were chanting cigani, cigani. hilarious.one of the best memories i have as a kid.
DennisB……there was not 18,000 fans at that game. Old Maple Leafs Garden did not seat that many. Yes, the crowd was 90% for Cro, but not that high. Still an unreal atmosphere. We shut down the street and created an awesome party that Saturday night. 16 years later and I can remember it like yesterday.
Russia was the better team in the semis. Had nothing to do with partying. Our guys happend to play a bad game at the worst possible time. That happens in sports.
the game against Austrailia was amazing because there were over 18000 Hrvati for the game…they had to shut down Carlton St outside the arena after the game because it was craaaaaazy…
unfortunately, the team partied too much and lost to Russia in the semis and they had to settle for bronze…Drazen wouldn't have let that happen if he were alive!!!!
@ziva istina
Why was Kukoc garbage?
That was the first post Drazen tournament and we won third place. I have the games vs Australia, Greece and Russia on VHS. The game vs. Australia…my God…it seemed like every single person had a flag and it was so loud.
Yeah I think Radja only played 3 years in the NBA… he was fairly old by then right?
Wow, how cool is that, the WChamps in T.O. must have been awesome. I don't remember, how did we do in that tourney?
Radja was a good player, but damnlazy. Could have played a few more years in the NBA, but wanted the easy life in Europe.
Kukoc….good player, garbage as a human being.
Vrankovic…..class act. Can't say enough good things about him. He took care of us in 1994 at the World Championships in Toronto; ticket and access to the team were no problem with him.
Yeah definitely that was a golden generation. Not bad eh, second place to the best team of all time. And of course the timing of that was key, considering everything that was going on at the time.
Those guys are legends period, and not just in Hrvatska. Kukoc was of huge importance to Jordan and Pippen et al. If I remember correctly he was there for the last 3 rings right? And Radja was a "playa" with the Celtics for a few years too. And Drazen, legendo!