101 Greats of European Basketball

Vladimir Stankovic
ans like Daneu and Rajkovic, while Cermak, Tvrdic and
Skansi were from the generation in the middle. All the
young players had an important role as Yugoslavia won
its first gold medal in a big competition. Duci Simonovic
averaged 6.3 points, but in some games, especially
the decisive duel against the United States, his great
defense was the foundation of the team’s collective
success.
Duci was a modern player, way ahead of his time. He
played shooting guard, but he could rebound like a power
forward. He was a pure athlete, physically powerful
but with good technique. I remember one time when he
scored 59 points against Partizan – with no three-pointers!
He was a real talent, but he also worked a lot to
reach that high level. For him, work was everything.
Even though he was playing elite basketball, he passed
his university exams with good grades. He knew that
basketball was not his future. At the 1971 EuroBasket,
with an average of 13.3 points, Simonovic was the second-best
scorer of the team after Cosic (15.7). A new
silver medal was the least that was expected from the
world champions. In the 1971-72 season he won his
second league crown with Crvena Zvezda and took his
team to the final of the Saporta Cup, played in Thessaloniki,
Greece, but Simmenthal Milano took the cup by
the score of 74-70.
Walking out of the 1972 Olympics
Then, during the summer of 1972, the Munich Olympics
arrived and that was the beginning of the end of
Simonovic’s brilliant career. In the game against Puerto
Rico, Yugoslavia lost 79-74 against all odds. Duci scored
10 points. Nobody could know those would be his last
10 points for the national team. As it turned out, the
Puerto Rican players tested positive in a doping test. A
symbolic fine by the IOC enraged the Yugoslav Olympic
Committee and the team itself. In a meeting, the players
decided to walk out of the competition in protest!
The federation directors, fearing a severe fine, intervened
to avoid the exodus of the players. All the players
changed their decision – all except one. Duci Simonovic
took his bags and walked out of the Olympic Village. To
this day, he is still angry that nobody walked out with
him or said goodbye to him.
Back home, Simonovic kept playing for Crvena
Zvezda, but he never went back to the national team.
His numbers with the club’s jersey ended up at 110
games (90 wins) and 1,018 points. In 1974, Zvezda
won the Saporta Cup final in Udine against Spartak
Brno 86-75 as Kapicic posted 23 points and Duci added
19. The following season, Crvena Zvezda returned
to the title game of the same competition in Nantes,
France, but lost to Spartak St. Petersburg by a single
point 63-62.
In 1977, after 10 years at Crvena Zvezda, Simonovic
moved to Germany to play with Bamberg and to complete
his studies. After that, and for many years, he kind
of disappeared. He kept a low profile. He reappeared
many years later as a great critic against deceit, irregularities
and everything false in professional sports.
It could be argued that Simonovic was the first anti-globalist
in sports. He dedicated himself to fighting
double morals, doping, ruthless commercialization of
sports and basically everything he considered wrong.
His obsession was the Olympic movement. His book
“The Olympic Deceit of The ‘Divine Baron’ – Pierre de
Coubertin” has been translated into several languages.
About Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern
Olympics, Simonovic said that he was “a plagiarist
who had a friendly correspondence with Adolf Hitler,”
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