101 Greats of European Basketball

Vladimir Stankovic
perfect scouting program, were well aware of all available
talents. In the summer of 1985, for the U16 European
Championship in Ruse, Bulgaria, Divac was selected for
the team by Svetislav Pesic, who was then the coach of
Bosna Sarajevo. Together with Divac were Toni Kukoc,
Nebojsa Ilic, Radenko Dobras, Slavisa Koprivica and
Zoran Kalpic, all of whom would become European junior
champions two years later in Bormio, Italy. Yugoslavia
won the gold medal with Divac averaging 11.7 points.
In his second season with Sloga, Divac was the
team’s top scorer with 17.6 points per game and
equally dominant at rebounds. All the major teams in
Yugoslavia now wanted him, but Partizan Belgrade had
a big advantage: already playing there was Aleksandar
“Sasha” Djordjevic, the country’s most-promising point
guard. Divac, who was smart, knew that he needed a
great point guard, and so decided to join Partizan.
During the 1985-86 season, Divac had the privilege
to work individually with the great Kresimir Cosic, who
was then the Yugoslav senior national team coach. A
few times, Cosic spent up to a week in Kraljevo showing
the young Divac the secrets of playing center. The result
of their collaboration was Divac forming part of the
Yugoslav men’s team at the World Cup of 1986 in Spain.
There, in Madrid, during the semifinal against the Soviet
Union, a historic anecdote unfolded: Yugoslavia
was winning by 9 points with 40 seconds left, but the
Soviets, led by Arvydas Sabonis, tied the game with 3
three-point shots, forced overtime, and won the game.
Before the last three-pointer from Valdis Valters that
led to overtime, the young Vlade Divac had committed
a turnover. Of that night, Divac has said: “I wanted to
quit basketball.” But the next day, against Brazil in the
bronze medal game, Cosic put Divac in the starting five.
The message was clear: I believe in you.
On his return home, Divac went directly from the
airport to training camp for the U18 European Championship
in Gmunden, Austria. Waiting for him were
his teammates from Ruse, Djordjevic and Dino Radja.
Little by little, Pesic had completed a great team that
that would triumph the next year at the U19 World Cup
in 1987 in Bormio, Italy. But before that would happen,
some nice things occurred in Divac’s life.
The great year of 1987
In his first season with Partizan, that of 1986-87, Divac
won two important titles. First came the Korac Cup,
after two great battles with Cantu of Italy. In the first
game, Cantu won at home 89-76 with 24 points from
Kent Benson, 19 from Antonello Riva and 9 from Pierluigi
Marzorati. Partizan had 28 points by Divac and 22
by Djordjevic, then went home to Belgrade with some
hopes for the rematch. In the second game, on March
22 in the old arena at New Belgrade, we saw a great
game featuring an explosion of talent from the young
Partizan team. The trophy stayed in Belgrade thanks to
a 101-82 victory behind 30 points by Divac, 22 by Zarko
Paspalj and 21 by Djordjevic. An excellent Riva, with 36
points, wasn’t enough for Cantu to avoid defeat.
In June 1987, the young Divac played at the senior
EuroBasket in Athens together with his junior national
teammates Radja, Kukoc and Djordjevic, and they returned
with the bronze medal. They crowned their great
year at the U19 World Cup in Bormio, where Yugoslavia
became champion with seven wins, two against a great
USA team, as Divac averaged 12.6 points and formed a
great team with Kukoc, Djordjevic, Radja, Ilic, Koprivica,
Teoman Alibegovic, Luka Pavicevic, Samir Avdic and
Miroslav Pecarski.
At the end of the 1986-87 club season, Partizan
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