Mirza Delibašić (9 January 1954 – 8 December 2001) was a Bosnian professional
basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...
player and
coach.
Delibašić was named one of
FIBA's 50 Greatest Players in 1991. He was enshrined into the
FIBA Hall of Fame in 2007. In 2008, he was named one of the
50 Greatest EuroLeague Contributors. He is widely considered one of the best shooters in the history of European basketball.
Early life
Delibašič was born in
Tuzla
Tuzla (, , ) is the List of cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, third-largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the administrative center of Tuzla Canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. As of 2013, it has a population of 110,979 inha ...
,
PR Bosnia and Herzegovina to Izet Delibašić, a native of
Kakanj, and Zajkana (née Mehičević) from
Ljubuški
Ljubuški is a city in the West Herzegovina Canton, a federal unit of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, an entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Kravica (waterfall), Kravica cascades lie within the city, near the settlement of Studenci, ...
. Young Mirza took up
tennis
Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...
, excelling at it. By the age of fourteen, he switched to basketball.
Club career
Mirza Delibašić, nicknamed Kinđe, led his club
Bosna to the
EuroLeague Championship in 1979. He played his first games aged 15 for KK Sloboda Dita, Tuzla's basketball club. Three years later, in 1971, he signed a contract with KK Bosna.
After leaving Bosna, Delibašić went to the
Spanish Primera División, where he ended up being considered one of the best players ever to play for
Real Madrid
Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional Football club (association football), football club based in Madrid. The club competes in La Liga, th ...
, along with the likes of
Juan Corbalán,
Wayne Brabender,
Fernando Martín Espina,
Fernando Romay,
Dražen Petrović, and
Arvydas Sabonis.
In his club career, he won numerous titles in European club competitions. In addition to having played together for their
Yugoslav national team, Mirza Delibašić and
Dražen Dalipagić, also played together with Real Madrid. Their performance in a 1983
European Champions Cup game versus
Cibona, in Zagreb, is only one of the many highlights of their careers. In that game, Delibašić scored 26 points and Dalipagić 33. The game appropriately finished with a two-on-one fast-break, with Delibašić making a behind-the-back fake pass to Dalipagić, and passing by a defender for a two-handed dunk at the buzzer. Cibona's fans put aside their team's loss in the game, and showed their appreciation for the Bosnian stars performances, with a standing ovation at the end of the game.
Career ending
In early summer 1983, twenty-nine-year-old Delibašić left
Real Madrid
Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional Football club (association football), football club based in Madrid. The club competes in La Liga, th ...
and signed with the
Italian League club
JuveCaserta coached by his former
Bosna mentor
Bogdan Tanjević.
In August 1983, the team went for preseason training and conditioning to the town of
Bormio in the
Italian Alps. Following the gruelling
altitude training, after coming back south to
Caserta
Caserta ( ; ) is the capital of the province of Caserta in the Campania region of Italy. An important agricultural, commercial, and industrial ''comune'' and city, Caserta is located 36 kilometres north of Naples on the edge of the Campanian p ...
, Delibašić suffered a near-fatal
brain hemorrhage
The brain is an organ (biology), organ that serves as the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals. It consists of nervous tissue and is typically located in the head (cephalization), usually near organs for ...
that would turn out to be career-ending. With Delibašić in critical condition, a private plane was immediately organized to airlift him to the
Military Medical Academy (VMA) in
Belgrade
Belgrade is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin, Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. T ...
where he was hospitalized for months. He survived and recovered, but not enough to return to playing professional basketball thus being forced into retirement effective immediately at only the age of twenty nine.
National team career
En route to a place among the greatest European players, Mirza Delibašić won every major
FIBA
The International Basketball Federation (FIBA ; French language, French: ) is an association of national organizations which governs the sport of basketball worldwide. FIBA defines the rules of basketball, specifies the Basketball equipment ...
tournament with the senior
Yugoslavian national basketball team
The Yugoslavia men's national basketball team ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Košarkaška reprezentacija Jugoslavije, Кошаркашка репрезентација Југославије; ; ) represented the Socialist Federal Republic of Yu ...
, including: the
Summer Olympic Games
The Summer Olympic Games, also known as the Summer Olympics or the Games of the Olympiad, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The 1896 Summer Olympics, inaugural Games took place in 1896 in Athens, ...
gold medal, at the
1980 Summer Olympics
The 1980 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXII Olympiad () and officially branded as Moscow 1980 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 19 July to 3 August 1980 in Moscow, Soviet Union, in present-day Russ ...
,
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 E ...
gold two times (
1975
It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe.
Events
January
* January 1 – Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...
and
1977), and the
FIBA World Cup
The FIBA Basketball World Cup is an international basketball competition between the senior men's national teams of the members of the International Basketball Federation (FIBA), the sport's global governing body. It takes place every four ye ...
gold at the
1978 FIBA World Championship.
Awards and accomplishments
Professional career
* 2×
Yugoslav League Champion: (1978, 1980)
*
Yugoslav Cup
The Yugoslav Cup (; ; , ), officially known between 1923 and 1940 as the King Alexander Cup (; , and between 1947 and 1991 as the Marshal Tito Cup (; ; ; ), was one of two major association football, football competitions in Socialist Federal Re ...
Winner: (1978)
*
EuroLeague Champion: (
1979
Events
January
* January 1
** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the ''International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the ''Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the song ...
)
*
FIBA Club World Cup Champion: (
1981)
*
Spanish League Champion: (
1982)
*
FIBA's 50 Greatest Players: (1991)
*
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina, sometimes known as Bosnia-Herzegovina and informally as Bosnia, is a country in Southeast Europe. Situated on the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula, it borders Serbia to the east, Montenegro to the southeast, and Croatia to th ...
Sportsman of the 20th century: (2000)
*
FIBA Hall of Fame: (2007)
*
50 Greatest EuroLeague Contributors: (2008)
Coaching career
Delibašić lived in
Sarajevo
Sarajevo ( ), ; ''see Names of European cities in different languages (Q–T)#S, names in other languages'' is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 2 ...
throughout the
1992-1996 siege of the city. Simultaneously, Delibašić coached the newly established
Bosnian national basketball team at
EuroBasket 1993 in Germany, where they finished in 8th place.
Personal life and death
In the late 1970s, Delibašić married his girlfriend Branka. Their son Dario was born in December 1979. The couple divorced in 1980, after Delibašić moved abroad to play with
Real Madrid
Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional Football club (association football), football club based in Madrid. The club competes in La Liga, th ...
.
In 1986, Delibašić, then retired from playing basketball and performing an administrative role at
KK Bosna, married Slavica Šuka,
an active basketball player with ŽKK Bosna. The same year in October, the couple had a son named Danko.
Due to his heavy drinking and smoking, Delibašić's final years were marked by persistent health problems that led to his death in 2001 in Sarajevo, aged 47. At a funeral attended by thousands, he was interred next to his close friend—singer
Davorin Popović who had died earlier that year—at
Bare Cemetery's Alley of Greats. After Delibašić's death, KK Bosna renamed its
arena
An arena is a large enclosed venue, often circular or oval-shaped, designed to showcase theatre, Music, musical performances or Sport, sporting events. It comprises a large open space surrounded on most or all sides by tiered seating for specta ...
in his honor.
See also
*
Yugoslav First Federal Basketball League career stats leaders
*
Mirza Delibašić Memorial
References
External links
Mirza Delibašićat the
FIBA Hall of Famearchive
*
Euroleague.net 50 Greatest Contributors*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Delibasic, Mirza
1954 births
2001 deaths
Alcohol-related deaths in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Basketball players at the 1976 Summer Olympics
Basketball players at the 1980 Summer Olympics
Bosnia and Herzegovina basketball coaches
Yugoslav expatriate sportspeople in Italy
Bosnia and Herzegovina men's basketball players
Bosniaks of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Burials at Bare Cemetery, Sarajevo
Competitors at the 1975 Mediterranean Games
Competitors at the 1979 Mediterranean Games
European champions for Yugoslavia
FIBA EuroBasket–winning players
FIBA Hall of Fame inductees
FIBA World Championship–winning players
KK Bosna Royal coaches
KK Bosna Royal players
KK Sloboda Tuzla players
Liga ACB players
Medalists at the 1976 Summer Olympics
Medalists at the 1980 Summer Olympics
Mediterranean Games gold medalists for Yugoslavia
Mediterranean Games medalists in basketball
Olympic basketball players for Yugoslavia
Olympic gold medalists for Yugoslavia
Olympic medalists in basketball
Olympic silver medalists for Yugoslavia
Real Madrid Baloncesto players
Shooting guards
Small forwards
Sportspeople from Tuzla
Bosnia and Herzegovina Muslims
Yugoslav expatriate sportspeople in Spain
Yugoslav men's basketball players
1978 FIBA World Championship players
1982 FIBA World Championship players
Yugoslav expatriate basketball people
Expatriate basketball people in Spain
Expatriate basketball people in Italy
20th-century Bosnia and Herzegovina sportsmen