101 Greats of European Basketball

Vladimir Stankovic
points), Jiri Pospisil (20) and a still-young Brabenec (14)
were the resistance. At the 1974 World Cup in San Juan, his
average had already gone up to 17.7 points, only 0.3 less
than Zidek. Against Argentina, he scored 41 points.
A lost final
In the 1973-74 season, Zbrojovka Brno reached the
Saporta Cup final. The final was played on April 2, 1974,
at Primo Carnera Arena, named after the famous boxing
champ. After some great years in Italy, “Professor”
Aleksandar Nikolic was Zvezda’s coach, and on the other
side was Frantisek Konvicka, who had been the star
of Spartak Brno for many years and played the 1964
EuroLeague final against Real Madrid.
Zvezda won 86-75 behind 23 points from Dragan
Kapicic, 20 from Zoran Slavnic and 19 from Ljubodrag
Simonovic. Jan Bobrovsky led Zbrojovka with 20 points,
while Brabenec added 14. It was his only European final
at the club level.
At the 1975 EuroBasket in Belgrade, I saw Brabenec
live. He was not a superstar yet, but he was on the right
path. Aside from his undisputable technical qualities,
he had what sets apart the good players from great
ones: character. You could feel his self-confidence and
he was willing to take responsibility; he would never
hide. Yugoslavia, which won its second gold medal, defeated
Czechoslovakia 84-68, but Brabenec’s 18 points
hinted at him being a future star.
At the Montreal Olympics, Brabenec was the fifth-best
scorer of the tourney with 18.7 points, only 0.1 less than
the USA’s Adrian Dantley, but still far from Australia’s Eddie
Palubinskas (31.3 ppg.) and Mexico’s Arturo Guerrero
(27.8 ppg.). Brabenec scored 35 against Italy and then
netted 24 against the eventual champs from America.
In May of 1977, Brabenec was chosen to play with
the European selection against Jugoplastika for a
farewell to its captain, Rato Tvrdic. The coach was the
late Antonio Diaz Miguel from Spain. The team also featured
the likes of Pierluigi Marzorati, Fabrizio Della Fiori
and Gianni Bertolotti from Italy; Juan Antonio Corbalan,
Rafa Rullan and Manolo Flores from Spain; and Atanas
Golomeev from Bulgaria, among others. Team Europe
won 116-108. My next appointment with Brabenec was
at EuroBasket 1977 in Belgium. In the last group stage
game in Ostend, Belgium, his Czechoslovakia beat
Yugoslavia 111-103 with Brabenec shining to the tune
of 32 points – and only 2 of them from the free-throw
line. Despite the loss, Yugoslavia managed to win its
third straight title, but Czechoslovakia won another
medal eight years later after taking bronze in Naples.
The key player was Brabenec, who scored 29 points in
the third-place game. He was also the top scorer for his
team with 23.7 points and finished second in the tournament,
behind only Kees Akerboom of Holland (26.4).
Again in the European selection
In July of 1978, Brabenec received another great recognition
on being selected for the European team that
would face Real Madrid in the farewell game for Clifford
Luyk. For many years, until the late 1990s, FIBA had this
nice custom of paying homage to big stars when they
retired with a game against a European team of great
players. But of course, there were more available dates,
fewer trips and more centralized power back then. Diaz
Miguel, the Spain coach for many years, coached Team
Europe again and called upon Brabenec, Luis Miguel
Santillana, Dino Meneghin, Renzo Bariviera, Tal Brody,
Micky Berkowitz, Drazen Dalipagic, Dragan Kicanovic,
Mirza Delibasic and Zeljko Jerkov. On the other side, a
great Real Madrid coached by Lolo Sainz featured Luyk,
48
49