101 Greats of European Basketball

first ones to try to help him. While Ranko drove to the
hospital, Korac spent the last moments of his life in the
backseat with Zaga. He died a few hours later. On June
3, a line of mourners more than two kilometers long
said goodbye to Korac in Sarajevo. He was later laid to
rest in the “Alley of Distinguished Citizens” at the Novo
Groblje cemetery complex in Belgrade. He was the first
sportsman to be buried there among politicians and
other celebrities.
I attended his funeral as a young journalist, with
only a few months on the job under my belt, but I would
have been there anyway as a fan of basketball. Radivoj
Korac was an icon for us. Two years later, under a proposal
from the secretary general of FIBA then, William
Jones, the third club competition in Europe was named
in Korac’s memory. When the competition disappeared
in 2001, the Serbian Federation rescued the name for
its national cup. A street in Belgrade was also named
for Radivoj Korac in the neighborhood where he lived.
In 2012, the City of Belgrade unveiled a plaque to mark
“Radivoj Korac Corner”, at the foot of Knez Mihailova
Street in the town center, near the café where he had
his friends met daily.
Korac was not an elegant player, but he was rational.
For him, the best players he saw were Oscar Robertson,
Wilt Chamberlain and Jerry Lucas. Among the
Yugoslavs, he considered his best friend Ivo Daneu,
Nemanja Djuric and Trajko Rajkovic to be the greatest.
With the Yugoslav national team, Korac won six
medals: silver at EuroBasket in 1961 and 1965, bronze
in 1963; silver at the 1963 and 1967 World Cups; and an
Olympic silver medal in Mexico City in 1968. He was the
best scorer at EuroBasket in 1961, 1963 and 1965, and
at the Rome Olympics in 1960. With 3,107 points, he is
the fourth-best scorer in the national team behind only
Drazen Dalipagic (3,700), Dragan Kicanovic (3,330) and
Kresimir Cosic (3,180), all of them with many more than
his 146 games played. His average was 21.3 points per
game, more than even Drazen Petrovic (21.0 ppg.). His
best marks with the team were 42 points scored against
Israel and 40 against Peru. According to a calculation
based on minutes played, he was the best performer in
the history of the national team. Second was Petrovic
and third was Vlade Divac. After them, Kukoc, Dalipagic,
Kicanovic, Radja, Rebraca, Bodiroga and Cosic. What a
brilliant lineup! Korac was the top scorer in a game 91
times; he scored more than 20 points 83 times and four
times scored more than 30.
In 1963, when during an OKK tour of Italy, they made
it to Padua, the signs advertising the game boasted
“Petrarca vs. Korac!”
A few years ago, 4,000 spectators filled the Sava
Centar in Belgrade to capacity for the official premiere
of a film about Korac. Directed by Goran Matic, the title
is “Ginger” – the English translation of his nickname,
“Zucko”, or red-head. It is a documentary with reenacted
scenes from his life based on the testimonials of his
friends and rivals. The movie has won several awards at
international festivals.
Radivoj Korac, the legend that lives on.
101 greats of european basketball
Radivoj Korac
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