Basketball world mourns passing of coach Zeravica

BELGRADE - Legendary Serbian basketball coach and FIBA Hall of Fame inductee Ranko Zeravica passed away on Thursday at his home in Belgrade, at the age of 85.

He had been suffering from heart problems in recent years and underwent triple bypass surgery shortly before turning 80.

Zeravica had three phenomenally successful spells at the helm of the former Yugoslavia national team in a 15-year-period between the late 1960s and the early 1980s.

He steered Yugoslavia to the title at the 1970 FIBA Basketball World Cup in Ljubljana, which remains to this day an iconic moment for basketball in all the nations that made up the then Yugoslavia.

Ten years later, again under the guidance of Zeravica, Yugoslavia stood on the top step of the podium at the 1980 Moscow Olympics.

He also coached Yugoslavia to Olympic silver in Mexico (1968) as well as to second-place finishes at the 1967 FIBA Basketball World Cup and the 1969 and 1971 editions of the EuroBasket.

He had commenced his coaching career at Partizan Belgrade in the early 1970s under the auspices of 'The Father of Yugoslav Basketball', Aca Nikolic.

Zeravica went on to work at FC Barcelona between 1974 and 1976 and is often credited as the man who shaped the Spanish powerhouse's modern concept of youth players' development.

At Barcelona, he promoted to the senior team the likes of Juan Antonio San Epifanio, Ignacio Solozabal and Chico Sibilio.

He returned to Partizan for a couple of seasons and won the Korac Cup trophy in 1978.

He later plied his trade also at Crvena Zvezda, Slobodna Dalmacija, Napoli, Snaidero Caserta and CAI Zaragoza, a club he returned to in 2003 to conclude his coaching career.

FIBA