101 Greats of European Basketball

Vladimir Stankovic
moments with the Italian national team, at the 1983
EuroBasket in Nantes (gold), the Los Angeles Olympics
in 1984 (where he was chosen for the all-tournament
team) and the 1991 EuroBasket in Rome (silver). However,
I like to think of him at the 1989 EuroBasket in Zagreb
because of the offensive festival held there by five great
scorers. Nikos Galis of Greece finished the tourney with
35.6 points per game. Drazen Petrovic of Yugoslavia
averaged 30.0, Stephane Ostrowski of France poured
in 24.4, Riva had 23.3 and France’s Richard Dacoury
averaged 22.0.
In Italy, Riva was nicknamed Bomber and also Nembo
Kid, an Italian version of Superman. Both are accurate
because he “flew” over the court and “bombed”
the rim of the rival.
His first trophy, even if he did not take part in the
final, was the Saporta Cup of 1978, won by Cantu in Milan
on March 23 against Virtus Bologna, 84-82. Riva’s
name is on the deep roster but still without a jersey
number. One year later, in the title game of the same
competition in Porec, Croatia, he didn’t play in an 83-73
win against Den Bosch of the Netherlands, either, but
he was already wearing his number 12. In the summer
of 1979, Riva took part in the first FIBA World Championship
for Junior Men in Brazil together with Walter
Magnifico, Alberto Tonut, Denis Innocentin and Ario
Costa. Italy finished sixth, but the 13.4 points averaged
by Riva showed signs of a great future.
His first great season was 1980-81. He and Cantu
won a third consecutive Saporta Cup in Rome, beating
FC Barcelona 86-82. Riva had 16 points and Barcelona’s
Juan Antonio San Epifanio scored 28. Some months
later, Cantu also won the Italian League title by defeating
Billy Milano in the final series 2-1. On March 3, 1981,
Riva made his debut with the Italian national team in an
exhibition game of Italy vs. Italian all-stars, but his first
official game in blue was on April 20 in Rimini against
Germany. He had a scoreless debut in a 68-62 defeat,
but after that he went on to win many games and scored
those 3,785 points, starting with 16 in Tel Aviv against
Israel on May 12, 1981.
Unforgettable Nantes
The following year, 1982, Riva won the EuroLeague
with Squibb Cantu against Maccabi Tel Aviv in Cologne
by the score of 86-80. Riva scored 16 points, Marzorati
had 18, Bruce Flowers scored 21, CJ Kupec tallied 21
and Innocentin chipped in 6 points in a game in which
the starting five of Cantu scored 84 of the team’s 86
total points. The other 2 were scored by Giorgio Cattini.
Fausto Bargna played but was scoreless. Cantu won
using seven players. In October of that same year, Cantu
won the Intercontinental Cup against Nashua Den
Bosch (70-68) with 22 points from Riva. However, I am
sure that the favorite year in his memories is 1983. That
year, his son Ivan was born and he repeated the EuroLeague
title with Ford Cantu, this time against Billy Milan
in Grenoble, 69-68. Riva scored 18 points. The culmination
of that golden year came at the 1983 EuroBasket in
Nantes as Italy defeated Spain in the final game 105-96
with Riva hitting for 8 points.
From then until 1992, Riva never skipped a beat with
the national team and he always had good numbers.
At the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, he averaged
23.4 points to be on the all-tournament team, together
with Michael Jordan and Drazen Petrovic. At the 1986
World Cup in Spain, Riva scored 19.2 points per game.
He averaged 26.8 points at the 1987 EuroBasket in Athens,
while in the 1989 edition in Zagreb he posted 23.3
points per game. Riva averaged 30.2 points at the 1990
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