101 Greats of European Basketball

impossible,” Zidek Sr. said. He was one of the true European
basketball legends in the 1960s and the 1970s.
After playing one season for Olomouc, he was granted
permission to work outside his country and finished
his brilliant career in Finland. At age 38, Zidek Sr. was a
player-coach with Forza Alku for two seasons.
He remembers well his battles in the paint against
Dino Meneghin, Kreso Cosic, Clifford Luyk and Trajko
Rajkovic. Zidek Sr. spoke with me about the great Ivo
Daneu, his rivalry against CSKA that went beyond
sports, and especially, about his great friendship with
Radivoj Korac, who tragically passed away in a car crash
in 1969. When I asked him why there are no great basketball
players in the Czech Republic like in the old days,
Zidek didn’t have a clear answer. “Maybe it is because
basketball is not as popular as football and ice hockey,”
he said. “There is not enough money for basketball.
Maybe players lack that passion for basketball nowadays.”
But of course, that is changing, as the Czechs
had a new EuroLeague champion, Jan Vesely, with Fenerbahce
Istanbul in 2017.
Jiri Zidek Jr. managed to achieve a lot of the things
Jiri Zidek Sr. couldn’t do. Zidek Jr. won the EuroLeague
title, played three years in the NBA and wore the jerseys
of European basketball powerhouses like Zalgiris and
Real Madrid, one of the dreams that his father had. But
if I had to choose one of them – with all due respect to
my friend Jiri Jr. – I would choose Zidek Sr., considered
by many as the best Czech player of all-time.
Jiri Zidek Sr, a Czech legend.
Jiri Zidek
101 greats of european basketball
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