101 Greats of European Basketball

Pesic 14. That season Bosna won the domestic league
and the following year it took the EuroLeague crown. In
1979, Partizan also won the Korac Cup, defeating Arrigoni
of Italy 109-98 in the final played at Pionir Arena. The
hero was, of course, Kicanovic, who scored 41 points
despite playing injured and covering for the also-injured
Dalipagic. Pionir gave a standing ovation to Kicha for a
great win against a great rival, led by the American duo
of Cliff Meely (30 points) and Willie Sojourner (29), alongside
Roberto Brunamonti (12 points).
Olympic champion
At the 1980 Olympics in Moscow, without no U.S.
team, Yugoslavia won the gold medal with Kicanovic
and Dalipagic as leaders. In 1981 and 1982, Gazzetta
dello Sport of Italy elected Kicha as the player of the
year in its prestigious survey. In 1981, he won the Yugoslav
League with Partizan and the silver medal with
the national team at EuroBasket in Prague. When the
summer of 1981 arrived, Kicanovic accepted the call
from Petar Skansi, an assistant to Professor Nikolic
with the national team in 1978 in Manila and the head
coach at the 1979 EuroBasket. As a result, Kicanovic
joined Scavolini Pesaro in Italy, a team that also signed
his national teammate Zeljko Jerkov. He played two
seasons there, averaging 23.4 points, 3.4 assists and
2.8 rebounds in 72 Italian League games. At the 1982
World Cup in Colombia, Kicanovic won the bronze medal.
He then won the Saporta Cup with Scavolini against
ASVEL in a 111-99 final, scoring 31.
That same year, after a seventh-place finish for
Yugoslavia at the EuroBasket in France, and a big fight
with Italy, Kicanovic decided to leave that country. He
signed for Racing Paris, but in the spring of 1984, at 30
years and 8 months old, he decided to retire. It was a
shame because he could have surely played well for
longer, but it was a personal choice. Behind him, he left
216 games with the Yugoslav national team and 3,330
points (which ranked second after Dalipagic, with 3,700,
although Kicanovic player fewer years. He collected 10
medals – five gold, three silver and two bronze – with
the national team. At Partizan, he played 167 games
and scored 4,699 points (28.1 ppg.).
After retiring, Kicanovic was the sports director
at Partizan, where his masterpiece was the European
crown of 1992. To reach that goal he worked hard for
many years and signed players like Vlade Divac, Zarko
Paspalj, Goran Grbovic, Ivo Nakic and Zeljko Rebraca. He
had the patience to nurture the talents of Djordjevic and
Predrag Danilovic. He convinced his friend Zeljko Obradovic
to put an end to his playing career at 31 years old
and become a head coach almost overnight. As in the
game itself, Kicha had great vision. In his life after basketball,
during a brief stint, he was Minister of Sports in Serbia
and for eight years was the president of the Serbian
Olympic committee. He was inducted into the FIBA Hall
of Fame and deserves to be in the one in Springfield, too,
where Dalipagic, his great teammate for Partizan and the
Yugoslav national team, already is.
On a personal note, it remains a regret of mine that
Dragan Kicanovic was not included in the list of 35 players
that were recognized by Euroleague Basketball to
celebrate the competition’s 50th anniversary. The jury
was more than qualified, but the genius of Kicanovic
escaped their decision. It’s true that he didn’t win any
EuroLeague titles, that he didn’t play for any big teams
in Europe, and that he retired young. But he was one of
the Greats, with a capital G.
101 greats of european basketball
Dragan Kicanovic
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