101 Greats of European Basketball

Vladimir Stankovic
era. In a close game, Real Madrid was in trouble when,
though leading 78-74, Carmelo Cabrera fouled out after
having scored 16 points and directed the game perfectly.
Lolo Sainz looked down the bench and threw young
Juan Antonio Corbalan to the lions. The kid made good
use of his minutes on the court to score four free throws
for four golden points. Real Madrid won 84-82 and lifted
its fifth continental crown after having waited six years
since the fourth one.
In the years 1978 and 1980, Real Madrid would win
two more EuroLeague titles, the first against Ignis Varese
in Munich (75-67) and the second against Maccabi
Tel Aviv in Berlin (89-85). But in a conversation I had
with him, Corbalan admitted that of the three titles he
won with Real Madrid, the one he remembers with the
most joy is the one from 1974 in Nantes.
That April day in 1974 was the start of the brilliant
international career of Juan Antonio Corbalan. At the
end of the 1987-88 season, his last with Real Madrid, his
titles amounted to three EuroLeagues, one Saporta Cup
(1984 against Olimpia Milano, 82-81) and one Korac Cup
(against Cibona 102-89 and 93-94, with 47 points by Drazen
Petrovic in Zagreb); 12 Spanish Leagues, seven Spanish
Cups and a Spanish Supercup; three Intercontinental
Cups (1976 and 1977 against Varese in the final and 1978
against Brazil’s Obras Sanitarias), a club world championship
(1981), and a European Supercup. Corbalan was
also chosen seven times as a member of the European
Selection all-star team, more than any other player.
I remember perfectly the first time I saw Corbalan
play. It was February 7, 1974, at the old Hala Sportova
in New Belgrade, the Serbian basketball temple of that
time. Radnicki Belgrade, the surprising champ of the
strong Yugoslav League the previous season with a
great generation of players led by coach Slobodan Piva
Ivkovic, defeated Real Madrid 95-87. Corbalan didn’t
play much and he didn’t score any points, as Real Madrid
was well covered in that area with Wayne Brabender
(37), Walter Szczerbiak (29) and Carmelo Cabrera
(25). But Corbalan could not hide his talent despite the
few minutes he played. It was the exact opposite.
Silver in Nantes and Los Angeles
Corbalan made his debut with the Spanish national
team in an international competition at a qualifying tournament
in the Netherlands for the 1972 Munich Olympics.
His average of 8.8 points was a highlight for the team. He
also helped the team advance through a second filter, the
world qualifying tournament, for the same Olympics. But
Corbalan didn’t manage to earn his place on the team for
the 1973 EuroBasket in Barcelona. He was back on the
team for the 1974 World Cup in Puerto Rico and he would
not leave the team until his last big international competition,
the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.
Nantes is probably Corbalan’s favorite city because
nine years after his first big triumph with Real Madrid,
Spain took a silver medal there, too, at the 1983 EuroBasket.
That was a great Spanish team, with Juan
Antonio “Epi” San Epifanio averaging 20.0 points and
playing with Chicho Sibilio (17.1 points), Fernando Martin
(13.8), Corbalan (11.3), and Andres Jimenez (10.7).
In a 95-94 semifinals win against the USSR, Corbalan
was his team’s third-best scorer, with 16 points, after
Sibilio (26) and Epi (25). However, Spain lost the title
game 106-95 against Italy. One year later, at the Los
Angeles Olympics, that great Spanish generation defeated
Yugoslavia in the semis 74-61 before losing in
the gold-medal game by 96-65 against a team of college
students from the United States with great names
like Jordan, Ewing, Perkins, Mullin, Alford and Klein.
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