101 Greats of European Basketball

Vladimir Stankovic
his defensive game easier. With his long arms and long
hands, Nakic sometimes looked like an octopus that
grabbed everything within reach. On offense, he used
his jumping ability and had a very precise hook shot. He
was a team player and many times the key man for his
teams, although he also had the privilege to play alongside
fellow legends like Kreso Cosic, Drazen Petrovic,
Dragan Kicanovic and Drazen Dalipagic. In a certain
way, that led him to have less presence in the media.
At 18 years old, Nakic left Mladost, which normally
played in the second or third division, to move up to the
first division with Industromontaza, which at the beginning
of the 1970s was the second team in Zagreb. After
three years, he went to the United States and signed
for Brigham Young University, the same school where
Cosic also studied and shined. But Nakic stayed there
for only six months. He was back home in 1977 to sign
with Cibona. He spent the next 12 seasons there, except
for one with Udine of Italy, in 1987-88, and another in
military service, in 1982-83. It was the golden age of the
team built by head coach Mirko Novosel. With Cibona,
Nakic won 12 titles, ranking him third in the club’s history
in trophies won. He played 414 games and scored
4,830 points and is the sixth-best scorer in club history.
Nakic made his national team debut with Yugoslavia
in 1977 and kept going until 1985. Along the way,
he played 75 games as an international, as well as 25
more with the Yugoslav B team. He scored 133 points
and played under several coaches. He made his debut
with “Professor” Aleksandar Nikolic before winning the
bronze medal at EuroBasket 1979 in Italy with Petar
Skansi. Ranko Zeravica was the coach when Yugoslavia
became the Olympic champion in 1980. With Novosel,
Nakic won the bronze at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles
and he played at the 1985 EuroBasket under Cosic.
Just 10 years after winning his first international trophy,
the Korac Cup in 1972, with only eight participants,
Cibona won its second European trophy in 1982. In the
Saporta Cup final, played in Brussels in 1982, Cibona
defeated Real Madrid 96-95 in overtime after an 88-88
tie through four quarters. Andro Knego was the hero
of the game with 34 points, while Cosic added 22 and
Nakic had 6 points.
Unforgettable Piraeus
One of the happiest days in Nakic’s brilliant career
was April 3, 1985. At the final of the EuroLeague, again
it was Cibona vs. Real Madrid. At Peace and Friendship
Stadium in Piraeus, Greece, some 14,500 fans witnessed
a great game. Cibona won 87-78 with Drazen
Petrovic as the star with 36 points. Nakic played 40
minutes, scored 7 points and pulled down 11 boards –
officially, although he thinks it was 21! He also blocked
8 shots and grabbed 3 steals. Aleksandar Petrovic also
played 40 minutes while Drazen Petrovic played 39,
Knego 37, Zoran Cutura 33 minutes and three other
players combined for 11 minutes (Sven Usic 7, Branko
Vukicevic 3 and Adnan Becic 1). In other words, there
were no rotations for Novosel.
Just a year later in Budapest, Cibona won its second
straight EuroLeague final, 94-82 against Zalgiris
Kaunas, whose star center Arvydas Sabonis was disqualified
midway through the second half for punching
Nakic. In his usual 40 minutes, Nakic scored 7 points,
grabbed 6 boards, blocked 4 shots and stole 2 balls.
There were others in charge of scoring for Cibona, like
Danko Cvjeticanin (23 points), Sven Usic (23) and Drazen
Petrovic (22).
In the 1987-88 season, Cibona could not defend
the EuroLeague title, but it didn’t skip a beat in winning
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