Yugoslavia national basketball team

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Yugoslavia was generally regarded as the second-leading force in international basketball, behind only the United States of America. Prior to the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s, the unified Yugoslav team (then including Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Macedonia) was regarded as one of the best in the world, always competing with the United States and the Soviet Union for the top positions on the medal podium.

The team of Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was succeeded by the teams of the five successor states. ^{[citation needed]}. Serbia and Montenegro adopted the name Federal Republic of Yugoslavia between 1992 and 2003 and competed under this title in a number of championships.

1 At the Olympics
2 At the World Basketball Championship
3 At the European Basketball Championships
4 The end
5 History
6 FIBA World Championships
7 Olympic Games
8 European Championships
9 See also
10 External links

[edit] At the Olympics

At the Summer Olympic Games, the unified Yugoslavia captured one gold medal (1980), took the silver medal on three occasions (1968, 76, 88]]) and captured the bronze medal once (1984).

[edit] At the World Basketball Championship

At the World Basketball Championships, the unified Yugoslavia captured three gold medals (1970, 1978, 1990), three silver medals (1963, 1967, 1974) and two bronze medals (1982, 1986).

Serbia and Montenegro, under the name FR Yugoslavia, added two further gold medals to this total (1998, 2002), while independent Croatia captured a bronze medal once (1994).

Serbia and Montenegro holds the world record for greatest number of World Basketball Championships won with 5 gold medals in total.

[edit] At the European Basketball Championships

At the European basketball championships, the unified Yugoslavia captured the gold medal five times (1973, 1975, 1977, 1989, 1991), were silver medalists on five occasions (1961, 1965, 1969, 1971, 1981), and captured the bronze medal three times (1963, 1979, 1987).

Serbia and Montenegro, as FR Yugoslavia, added three gold medals to this total (1995, 1997, 2001) along with one bronze medal (1999), while independent Croatia captured the bronze medal twice (1993, 1995).

[edit] Eurobasket 1947

Yugoslavia made its European championship debut in Eurobasket 1947, the fifth edition of the tournament. The team placed 13th out of 14 teams in the competition, losing to the Soviet Union and Hungary in the preliminary round, beating the Netherlands but losing to Italy in the semifinal round (placing third in the three-way tie between the teams), and defeating Albania in the 13th/14th classification match.

[edit] Eurobasket 1953

Yugoslavia's second appearance was at Eurobasket 1953 in Moscow. They dropped an early 27-25 decision against Bulgaria but finished at 3-1 in their preliminary group. In the three-way tie-breaker with Bulgaria and Israel, Yugoslavia ended up in second place to advance to the final round. There, they won 3 but lost 4 to take 6th place overall in the 17 team tournament.

[edit] Eurobasket 1955

Yugoslavia again advanced to the final round at Eurobasket 1955 in Budapest, this time in sole second place with a 3-1 record in the preliminary round pool. Their final round performance was riddled with 6 losses in 7 games, but did include the high point of a 52-49 victory over eventual silver medallist Czechoslovakia on Yugoslavia's way to an 8th place finish of the 18 entrants.

[edit] Eurobasket 1957

Yugoslavia's appearance at the Eurobasket 1957 tournament in Sofia resulted in a 2-1 record for the preliminary round and advancement to the final round robin. There, they proved capable of two wins, defeating Poland and France to finish at 2-5 for 6th place in the tournament.

[edit] The end

The Yugoslav national team of the late 1980s and early 1990s, just prior to the Yugoslav wars, featured what was perhaps the greatest generation in the history of Yugoslav basketball. With such future NBA players as Dražen Petrović, Vlade Divac, Toni Kukoč, Dino Rađa and Žarko Paspalj, has pioneered the wave of international NBA players well before the early 21st century, when the concept began to gain true global momentum.

Many of the former Yugoslav stars mentioned above were a part of the under-21 national team that won the FIBA World Junior Championships in 1987, defeating the USA both in pool play and in the final.

Serbia's national team became the direct descendant of the Yugoslavia team.