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Drazen Dalipagic during his time at Real Madrid. EFE
Drazen Dalipagic, Yugoslav Basketball Legend, Passes Away

Drazen Dalipagic, Yugoslav Basketball Legend, Passes Away

The legendary scorer, who won Olympic, World, and European gold with his national team, securing twelve medals, played for Real Madrid in the 1982-83 season alongside compatriot Mirza Delibasic.

José Manuel Andrés

Madrid

Sábado, 25 de enero 2025, 18:00

FIBA basketball mourns the loss of one of its greatest scorers of all time. Drazen Dalipagic, a Yugoslav basketball legend and one of Europe's most dominant players during the late 1970s and early 1980s, passed away at the age of 73 in Belgrade, where he resided, succumbing to cancer in recent years.

Known affectionately as Praja, he was born in Mostar in 1951 to a mixed family, typical of Yugoslavia at the time, with a Bosnian father and a Croatian mother. His studies took him to Belgrade at a young age, where this prolific scorer, standing at 197 centimetres, signed his first professional contract with Partizan in 1971 at the age of 19. With the historic team of the then Yugoslav capital, now Serbian, he won two leagues in 1976 and 1979, two Korac Cups in 1978 and 1979, and a Cup. He scored a total of 8,278 points in 305 games, averaging an astronomical 27.1 points per game.

Throughout the 1970s, during which he even trained for a couple of weeks with the Boston Celtics, a historic NBA franchise, in 1976, he rose to fame with his national team, winning Olympic gold at the 1980 Moscow Games, the World Championship in the Philippines in 1978, and three consecutive Eurobasket titles in 1973, 1975, and 1977. In total, he won twelve medals with the Plavi team, becoming its top scorer in his 243 international matches, sharing the court with other basketball giants like Zoran Slavnic, Kresimir Cosic, Mirza Delibasic, and Dragan Kicanovic.

After an initial experience in Italy during the 1980-81 season, where he played for Reyer Venezia and scored over 70 points in a game against Virtus Bologna, Dalipagic joined Real Madrid in the 1982-83 season, sharing the locker room with compatriot Delibasic. The fact that he only played European Cup matches for the Whites partly explains why Barça won the League and Cup. In the top European competition, Madrid narrowly missed out on a final contested by Italian teams Cantú and Milan, with the former emerging victorious.

Dalipagic returned to Italian basketball after his stint with Madrid. Between 1983 and 1985, he played for Udine, then returned to Reyer Venezia until 1988, and concluded his Italian journey with Glaxo Verona. Interestingly, nearing forty, he ended his playing career with Red Star, Partizan's eternal rival, retiring in 1991. As a coach, he had a more modest career during the 1990s and early 21st century, leading Italian Gorizia, Macedonian MZT Skopje, and Montenegrin Astra Banka. Since 2007, he has been part of the FIBA Hall of Fame, a basketball community now mourning the loss of one of its greatest scorers ever.

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todoalicante Drazen Dalipagic, Yugoslav Basketball Legend, Passes Away