Vrankovic elected president of Croatian Basketball Federation
ZAGREB - One of Croatia's all-time greats, Stojko Vrankovic, has been elected as president of the country's basketball federation.
ZAGREB - One of Croatia's all-time greats, Stojko Vrankovic, has been elected as president of the country's basketball federation.
The vote took place at an Extraordinary General Assembly of the sport's governing body on Saturday.
Stojko Vranković na Saboru HKS-a izabran na mjesto novog predsjednika Hrvatskog košarkaškog saveza pic.twitter.com/USufBNT1cL
— hks_cbf (@CbfHks) November 19, 2016
A 2.18m center, Vrankovic is best known in his playing days for being a towering presence who helped his teams win plenty of games, especially with his shot-blocking ability.
He helped the former Yugoslavia reach the Final of the 1988 Seoul Olympics and one year later capture the title at the EuroBasket
With Croatia, he finished runners-up at the 1992 Olympics to the United States Dream Team and two years later finished third at the FIBA Basketball World Cup in Canada.
"To be a player, a captain of the national team and now president - it's a big honor for me, but also a huge responsibility." - Vrankovic
He had numerous other achievements with his national team.
Vrankovic had a long career that saw him play for big clubs in Europe and in the NBA and now he will look to use all of his knowledge and leadership skills to help his country.
"I can not say that I was not running on adrenaline when I was elected," he said on the federation website. "In any case, to be a player, a captain of the national team and now president - it's a big honor for me, but also a huge responsibility.
"The objectives are to strengthen the national championship, work at it year after year, to invest in young people, to educate coaches ... form a Croatian cadet championships ... The goal is to continue the good cooperation with FIBA and ABA League."
Vrankovic will also have the task of appointing a coach for a men's national team which made headlines this summer with a victory at the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament (OQT) in Turin.
Vrankovic experienced the thrill as he sat on the bench for Croatia's games as an advisor to the team.
FIBA