Arijan Komazec (born January 23, 1970) is a retired Croatian professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

player.

Professional career

Komazec started his professional career as a basketball player at the age of 16, in the historical club of

Zadar Zadar ( , ; historically known as Zara (from Venetian and Italian: ); see also other names), is the oldest continuously inhabited Croatian city. It is situated on the Adriatic Sea, at the northwestern part of Ravni Kotari region. Zadar serv ...

, in the 1986–87 season. At the end of the previous season, Zadar had become champions of the Yugoslav League, and had the right to participate in the FIBA European Champions Cup (EuroLeague). Komazec made great performances, and led his team in the fourth place of the top 6 semifinal group stage. After six years in Zadar, where he became the absolute leader and scorer of his team, he made the big step in his career for the transcription of the Greek League (which was then the best in Europe) and Panathinaikos, of the head coach Željko Pavličević and the Greek superstar Nikos Galis. There he found an old acquaintance from years of Zadar, Stojko Vranković, who had just returned from the NBA. In a year that began with ambitions to win the championship, for Panathinaikos and him also, won only the 1993 Greek Cup, in a final against Sato Aris. Komazec, although he did some excellent performances, did not respond satisfactorily to Panathinaikos, who was preparing to make the fling at European level, and in the summer he was loaned to Cagiva Varese, where he played the next two seasons (1993–94 in A2 & 1994–95 A1), and made impressive performances. The impression that he made by his performance in Varese, caused Buckler Beer Bologna, which was the dominant team of the Italian League the previous years, to buy his contract from Panathinaikos, and close a deal with him for the next two years, in an effort to replace the large void left in the team by Saša Danilović leaving for the NBA's

Miami Heat The Miami Heat are an American professional basketball team based in Miami. The Heat compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Southeast Division. The club plays its home games at FT ...

. The Croatian star didn't succeed one more time to respond to the high demands of competitive sport at the top level, and he only led Virtus to the meager wins of the Italian Supercup in 1996, and the Italian Cup in 1997. This failure brought him back again to Varese the next year (1997–98), where rediscovered his best self, and with a scoring recital, he led the Lombardy team to the playoffs semifinals in the Italian League, and on the course to a participation in the EuroLeague, for the first time 20 years. In the summer of 1998, came the third and final chance for Komazec to make an important achievement in a great club of European basketball, as he agreed to play for Olympiacos of

head coach A head coach, senior coach or manager is a professional at training and developing athletes. They typically hold a more public profile and are paid more than other Coach (sport), coaches. In some sports, the head coach is instead called the "manage ...

Dušan Ivković. Arijan began the season doing very well, and everything indicated that the experiment for the player and the club could end up in achieving something good at the end of the season, when the major club titles, both in Greece and in Europe were contested. But an injury put him off of the court for half a month, and he became substantially off in his playing form, throughout the remaining part of the season. His participation at the 1999 FIBA EuroLeague Final Four, in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

, was the only one in his short and essentially failed time at Olympiacos. In the next season (1999–00), he returned to his roots, and he quite unexpectedly was joined in

by Dino Rađa. Together, the duo led the

Dalmatia Dalmatia (; hr, Dalmacija ; it, Dalmazia; see names in other languages) is one of the four historical regions of Croatia, alongside Croatia proper, Slavonia, and Istria. Dalmatia is a narrow belt of the east shore of the Adriatic Sea, stre ...

n club to the semifinals of the

FIBA Saporta Cup The FIBA Saporta Cup was the name of the second-tier level European-wide professional club basketball competition, where the domestic National Cup winners, from all over Europe, played against each other. The competition was organized by FIBA ...

, where they lost to the Greek club AEK. They won the Croatian Cup in the same season, which marked the last success of his career. He was briefly a part of the Vancouver Grizzlies NBA team, during the 2000–01 season, but he only spent one month with the team, and he did not play in any official NBA games with them.

National team career

Komazec was a member of the senior Yugoslavian national team (1990–92), and then the senior Croatian national team. He was a part of the Croatian teams that won silver at the

1992 Summer Olympics The 1992 Summer Olympics ( es, Juegos Olímpicos de Verano de 1992, ca, Jocs Olímpics d'estiu de 1992), officially known as the Games of the XXV Olympiad ( es, Juegos de la XXV Olimpiada, ca, Jocs de la XXV Olimpíada) and commonly known as ...

, and bronze at

EuroBasket EuroBasket, also commonly referred to as the European Basketball Championship, is the main international basketball competition that is contested quadrennially, by the senior men's national teams that are governed by FIBA Europe, which is the ...

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peace ...

and

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake strike ...

Personal life

His father is Milan Komazec, a former basketball player who won three

Yugoslav First League The Yugoslav First Federal Football League (Serbian: Прва савезна лига у фудбалу / ''Prva savezna liga u fudbalu'', hr, Prva savezna liga u nogometu, sl, Prva zvezna nogometna liga, mk, Прва сојузна лига, ...

championships (

1965 Events January–February * January 14 – The Prime Minister of Northern Ireland and the Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland meet for the first time in 43 years. * January 20 ** Lyndon B. Johnson is Second inauguration of Lyndo ...

1967 Events January * January 1 – Canada begins a year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of Canadian Confederation, Confederation, featuring the Expo 67 World's Fair. * January 5 ** Spain and Romania sign an agreement in Paris, establ ...

, and

1968 The year was highlighted by Protests of 1968, protests and other unrests that occurred worldwide. Events January–February * January 5 – "Prague Spring": Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Czechos ...

) with Zadar. His uncle is Petar Popović, a former basketball player. His first-cousin is Alan Gregov, a former basketball player.

References

External links

Arijan Komazec

Eurobasket

Euroleague.net Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Komazec, Arijan 1970 births Living people AEK B.C. players Basketball players at the 1992 Summer Olympics Basketball players at the 1996 Summer Olympics Croatian expatriate basketball people in Greece Croatian expatriate basketball people in Italy Croatian men's basketball players FIBA EuroBasket-winning players FIBA World Championship-winning players Greek Basket League players KK Zadar players Lega Basket Serie A players Medalists at the 1992 Summer Olympics Olympiacos B.C. players Olympic basketball players of Croatia Olympic medalists in basketball Olympic silver medalists for Croatia Pallacanestro Varese players Panathinaikos B.C. players S.S. Felice Scandone players Shooting guards Small forwards Basketball players from Zadar Virtus Bologna players Yugoslav men's basketball players 1990 FIBA World Championship players 1994 FIBA World Championship players