101 Greats of European Basketball

In 1978, he joined Synudine Bologna and he turned
the team into a double-champ in Italy overnight as he
averaged 35 minutes per game with 16.9 points, 9.9 rebounds
and 1.6 assists. When Novosel started to build
his great Cibona team in Zagreb in the early 1980s, he
saw Cosic as the key piece. On March 16, 1982 in Brussels,
Cibona won the Saporta Cup against Real Madrid
after overtime, 96-95, with 22 points by Cosic. Cibona
would also win its first Yugoslav League title and in
1982-83 the team made its debut in the top European
competition. It was Cosic’s last season and the team
had an awful record in the competition, at 0-10, but Novosel
was looking into the future. When he managed to
sign Drazen Petrovic in the summer of 1984, the future
was secured despite not having Cosic on the team. The
mission had been accomplished.
Believing in youngsters
Once retired, Kreso Cosic dedicated his life to his
passion: coaching. He was named coach of the Yugoslav
national team. He made his debut at the 1985
EuroBasket in Germany with a solid team (Drazen
Petrovic, Zoran Cutura, Stojan Vrankovic, Zoran Radovic,
Andro Knego, Mihovil Nakic, Borislav Vucevic
and Boban Petrovic) but finished seventh. To the World
Cup in 1986 in Spain, Cosic brought an 18-year-old kid
named Vlade Divac. During the 1985-86 season, he
traveled several times to Kraljevo, the city of Divac’s
club, to spend a week or 10 days practicing individually
with the young center. Divac never forgot this and he
never missed a chance to remember the great Cosic.
In the semifinal against the USSR with the score 85-82
for Yugoslavia, Divac fumbled a ball that allowed Valdis
Valters to make a three-pointer that forced overtime
and ultimately led to Yugoslavia’s loss. After the game,
Divac made up his mind to abandon the sport because
he was clearly not made for it. The following day, in the
game for third place, the starting center was Vlade Divac.
The message from Cosic was loud and clear: “I believe
in you.” For the 1987 EuroBasket in Athens, Cosic
called young prospects like Toni Kukoc, Dino Radja and
Aleksandar Djordjevic to join Divac, Zarko Paspalj and
Goran Grbovic. The bronze medal they won was a prize
for a team full of talent, the great vision of Kreso Cosic.
I was lucky enough to not only follow many of Cosic’s
games but also to meet him personally and even collaborate
with him during his last stint as national head
coach. I was a member of a “press commission” of the
Yugoslav Federation, an earlier version of today’s press
officers. But since I was the only one of the three members
living in Belgrade, most of the practical duties fell
to me. I talked to Cosic many times because he was a
perfectionist and always wanted to improve things.
He was a super kind man with a wide smile. He used to
call people with the phrase “Stari” (meaning, old man).
Almost every one of his conversations started with his
famous, “Listen, old man...”
He spent the last years of his life in the United States
as a Croatian diplomat. He has a statue in Zadar and
a new arena there bears his name. The Croatian Cup
tournament is also named for him: Kresimir Cosic Cup.
He was buried at the Mirogoj cemetery in Zagreb, a few
meters away from another basketball legend, Drazen
Petrovic.
Kresimir Cosic, an unforgettable man on the court –
and even more so off the court.
Kresimir Cosic
101 greats of european basketball
C