101 Greats of European Basketball

The first showman
To the long list of great players from the
past who never won the top European
title – among them Kresimir Cosic, Oscar
Schmidt, Dragan Kicanovic, Nikos Galis,
Drazen Dalipagic, Ivo Daneu and Juan Antonio
San Epifanio – I add one more: Zoran
“Moka” Slavnic. Without a doubt, he belongs to that
list of stars from the past.
He made up for the lack of trophies at the club level
with great triumphs playing for the Yugoslav national
team. Slavnic won eight major honors with the national
team. He was an Olympic champion in Moscow in 1980
and silver medalist in Montreal 1976. He was also a
world champ in 1978 in Manila and runner-up in that
competition in 1974 in San Juan. Slavnic also tasted
EuroBasket glory in 1973 in Barcelona, 1975 in Belgrade
and 1977 in Liege, in addition to a bronze medal in
1979 in Turin. In total, he earned eight medals in major
competitions over 10 years from his debut at the 1973
EuroBasket until his retirement after the 1983 edition
of the same tournament.
It might have been more, but Slavnic, who was born
on October 26, 1949, in Belgrade, did not make his debut
with the national team at a major competition until
he was 24 years old! It was Mirko Novosel who gave the
Crvena Zvezda guard a shot after the previous boss,
Ranko Zeravica, overlooked Slavnic. Zeravica considered
Slavnic “an undisciplined player.” What Zeravica
thought was wrong about Moka – who got his nickname
from childhood friends due to his love of mocha-flavored
cakes – was what Novosel thought to be his most
brilliant feature: creativity.
Slavnic was not your usual player. His imagination
was above any tactics or orders from a coach. He was,
simply put, the Improv King. He was guided by his gut,
always with the idea that basketball is just a game and
you had to have fun. Sometimes he had too much fun,
but he also gave fans a lot of joy. He was willing to do
anything to make people laugh, applaud or admire him.
He even caused hatred from opponents, who were ridiculed
by some of his plays; passes between the legs of
the rival, assists behind the back or some other invention
of his. At just 1.81 meters, Slavnic was not able to
dunk, but once on a fastbreak, he tried to do it anyway
– with a teammate who lifted him up! I would say that
Moka Slavnic was the first showman in European basketball.
Better late than never
As a junior player, Slavnic showed talent in many
sports, from handball to swimming to athletics and
basketball. His first coach in Crvena Zvezda, Zdravko
Kubat, soon saw the talent in him and paired him on a
team with Dragan Kapicic. Slavnic made his debut with
the Yugoslav junior national team in 1967 at the qualifying
tournament for the 1968 FIBA European Championship
for Junior Men in Vigo, Spain, where Yugoslavia
finished second after losing to the USSR in the final,
82-73. Along with Slavnic, there were players like Vinko
Jelovac, Ljubodrag Simonovic, Damir Solman, Dragisa
Vucinic, Mihajlo Manovic and Ivan Sarjanovic. Only two
years later, at the 1970 World Cup in Ljubljana, Slovenia,
several of them – Jelovac, Simonovic, Solman and Kapicic
– were world champs at 22 years old, while Slavnic
could only watch the games on TV.
101 greats of european basketball
Zoran Slavnic
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