[Radivoj Korac] The first Euro Star

daywalker02 · May 8, 2024

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id...nnection-nearly-60-years-making-sombor-serbia

DURING WARMUPS, the 18-year-old Italian center tried to focus on his routine, but his gaze kept drifting toward the other end of the court. There, he stared in awe at a player he had only heard about and read about in newspapers. "Everybody was scared to guard him," says Dino Meneghin, who was then with the Italian club team Pallacanestro Varese. It was 1968, and this was his first matchup with Korać, then with Petrarca Padova, an Italian club team.

The game was played in Meneghin's hometown of Varese, in northern Italy, and Meneghin was given the assignment of guarding the 6-foot-5 Korać, a sharpshooter from midrange who could handle the ball, score in isolation and play with his back to the basket.

"Very complete," Meneghin says of Korać's game.

Meneghin's coach told him to try and deny Korać the ball, so Meneghin overplayed passing lanes, but nothing seemed to work.

"I tried, but he was clever -- and smart," Meneghin recalls. "For me, it was really, really hard."

Meneghin can't remember how many points Korać scored, but he remembered how he felt.

"I thought I was a good player, but after that game, I realized I had a lot to learn," says Meneghin, who would go on to become one of the greatest players in the history of Europe.

Korać was even better, becoming what the late Borislav Stanković, his former coach and the longtime secretary general of FIBA, called Europe's first basketball star. He would come to define his generation -- and the sport itself.
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daywalker02 · May 9, 2024

DURING GAMES, Korać played with an expression that never seemed to change -- a calm stoicism, the same sort of descriptor later famously used for Jokic.

"He was creative, a basketball genius," says Josip Djerdja, a former Yugoslav national team member. He had a solution for the direct opponent at any time. He'd immediately adapt to the characteristics of his opponent. He'd beat him with his own weapons."

Like Jokic, Korać's body was covered with bruises after games, often because there had been two and three players who had fouled out trying to stop him. And when he was fouled, he proved automatic from the free throw line, where he famously shot the ball underhanded. Once, on a Belgium television show, he was asked how many free throws he could make out of 100, and he guessed between 70 and 80. Then, during a live broadcast, he made 100 in a row.

"[Korac is] a legend in our country, especially in my hometown"Nikola Jokic
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[Radivoj Korac] The first Euro Star

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