101 Greats of European Basketball

Vladimir Stankovic
Despite spending much of his time training for basketball,
Dusko Ivanovic was a good law student. He finished
his degree in the expected time, four years, and then
started working for the Podgorica town council. For three
years, he was a player and a public worker. In 1986 he married
Ljiljana, a medical student, and in 1987 his son Stefan
was born. Everything pointed to a future in Podgorica.
When Ivanovic tried to play for Partizan, the club
from Belgrade replied that it was not interested. Then
came the call from Olimpija Ljubljana. Dusko went to
the meeting alone, without an agent – something totally
unheard of then in Yugoslavia. The club made an offer
and Dusko explained his demands for a radical change
in his life, but the sides did not agree, and he went back
to Podgorica. He then got the call from Boza Maljkovic,
who was at the start of a great project in Split with a
Jugoplastika team full of talent.
“I saw a team with loads of talent, but too young. I
was looking for an experienced player, a leader, an authority
for the players, but also for the referees,” Maljkovic
told me many times. “I chose Dusko and, luckily,
he accepted. He was a key piece in the building of the
great Jugoplastika.”
Maljkovic didn’t convince Ivanovic with money – Dusko
himself says that it was “less than half of what Olimpija
offered” – but rather with a splendid future. Both were
aware that they had an extraordinary group of players
on their hands. The first season, 1987-88, Jugoplastika
played the Korac Cup and finished third in the group, tied
with Cantu, but with a worse point differential. In Split,
Jugoplastika defeated CAI Zaragoza 87-83 behind 18
points from Toni Kukoc and 15 from Ivanovic.
Jugoplastika won the 1987-88 Yugoslav League
with overwhelming authority. Its regular season record
was 21-1 and Dusko was its best scorer with 418 points
(19.9 per game), in front of Dino Radja, Kukoc and Velimir
Perasovic. In the playoffs, the team defeated Sibenka
and Olimpija 2-0 and in the final series, the victim was
Partizan, 2-1. With 139 points (19.8 ppg.), Ivanovic was
again the top scorer on the team. Maljkovic had hit a
home run as Ivanovic was the piece that made all that
talent jell as a team.
In autumn of 1988, Jugoplastika was back in the EuroLeague,
but nobody gave any chance to such a young
team. It was, however, one of those times when talent,
ambition and hard work defeated money to create a
sporting miracle. The fact that Jugoplastika reached the
Final Four in Munich was already a surprise and it certainly
arrived as an outsider. In the semifinal, its victim was FC
Barcelona with Juan Antonio “Epi” San Epifanio, Nacho
Solozabal, Audie Norris, Ferran Martinez and company.
The score was 87-77 thanks to 24 points from Kukoc and
20 from Dusko. Maccabi Tel Aviv was waiting in the title
game and was also the big favorite, but Jugoplastika prevailed
again, 75-69. Radja shined this time with 20 points,
Kukoc added 18 and Ivanovic had 12. What Dusko Ivanovic
meant to this team is explained by the fact that he was the
team captain in only his second year there.
The following year, the same thing happened. Jugoplastika
first won the national cup, then the EuroLeague
in Zaragoza, and in the end, the Yugoslav League for a
triple crown. In the national league, Ivanovic was “only”
the team’s third-best scorer, behind Kukoc and Radja,
two diamonds that had grown a lot at Dusko Ivanovic’s
side. In the Zaragoza Final Four, Jugoplastika defeated
Limoges in the semis 101-83 behind 24 points by Perasovic
and 20 by Ivanovic, while in the title game the victim
was, again, Barcelona. A 72-67 score gave Jugoplastika
another title as Kukoc netted 20 points and three players
contributed 12 apiece: Ivanovic, Radja and Perasovic.
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