Those looking for a renaissance in Croatian basketball may soon pinpoint 2002-03 as the season when and Zadar as one of the places where things started looking up again. That is quite appropriate for the place where Croatian basketball was born in 1930, and where the club was constituted in 1945. From its ascension to the Yugoslav first division in 1957 to today, Zadar's reputation has been of a basketball hotbed with a team that can rise up and capture trophies at any given moment. The most successful era was no doubt the decade between 1965 and 1975, when Zadar won no fewer than five Yugoslav League titles under the leadership of legends names Kresimir Kosic and Pino Giergia. Despite some of the most arduous competitions in the world during the 1980's, Zadar would add a fifth domestic crown in 1986, in the same year that its rival Cibona was strong enough to conquer Europe for a second straight season. Zadar had already made noise on the European stage itself, having taken third place in Europe in 1968 and having made the semifinals of the Korac Cup in 1982 and 1986. Zadar became a fixture in the relaunched Croatian League in the 1990s, but could only outlast Cibona to two trophies, the 1998 and 2000 national cups. In 2002-03, however, Zadar became the first Croatian team to win a multinational competition in more than a decade when it upset some big names to take the Adriatic League title. Riding a wave, Zadar also took another Croatian Cup, its third in six years. In the first edition of the ULEB Cup, Zadar was nearly as dangerous, tying on victories but losing on points in the quarterfinals to eventual champion Pamesa Valencia. Its season ended with a semifinal loss in the Croatian League playoffs, but Zadar had already sounded its name loud and clear once more across the continental basketball landscape.

TROPHY CASE:

(*) Goodyear League
2003
(*) Croatian Cup
1998, 2000, 2003
(*) Yugoslavian League
1965, 1967, 1968, 1974, 1975, 1986
(*) Yugoslavian Cup
1970

 

2002/03		overall		FG2			FG3			FT			Rebs					Blck		Foul
		Pts	%	M	A	%	M	A	%	M	A	%	D	O	Ass	St	To	Fv	Ag	Cm	Rv	Val
1	Split	95	52.9	29	45	64.4	7	23	30.4	16	19	84.2	14	8	13	7	10	2	0	28	0	66
2	Zvezda	93	57.1	23	35	65.7	9	21	42.9	20	24	83.3	25	7	7	5	12	1	2	30	26	92
3	Maccabi	115	58.6	19	31	61.3	15	27	55.6	32	38	84.2	12	8	13	10	8	2	4	30	31	119
4	@Olimpija	71	45.6	21	39	53.8	5	18	27.8	14	19	73.7	20	3	14	0	11	1	4	25	22	55
5	Cibona	89	46.7	17	33	51.5	11	27	40.7	22	29	75.9	15	7	14	8	5	1	1	24	28	93
6	Borac	99	59.3	23	32	71.9	9	22	40.9	26	32	81.3	22	6	17	4	14	1	0	17	26	116
7	@Široki	84	43.8	22	38	57.9	6	26	23.1	22	24	91.7	33	5	8	4	12	1	0	20	0	65
8	Zagreb	82	47.5	22	43	51.2	7	18	38.9	17	29	58.6	6	12	19	11	14	2	1	27	29	75
9	@Laško	78	45.6	13	24	54.2	13	33	39.4	13	15	86.7	18	1	5	11	14	0	2	26	17	55
10	Bosna	107	62.7	31	40	77.5	11	27	40.7	12	13	92.3	17	6	31	5	10	3	1	25	20	127
11	@Krka	88	45.9	20	35	57.1	8	26	30.8	24	26	92.3	27	6	10	6	8	0	0	22	0	72
12	@Zvezda	63	35.7	9	26	34.6	11	30	36.7	12	20	60.0	22	10	11	12	12	1	3	22	26	64
13	@Split	93	60.0	26	38	68.4	10	22	45.5	11	14	78.6	18	5	18	10	9	1	0	20	0	89
14	@Maccabi	71	43.1	15	33	45.5	10	25	40.0	11	13	84.6	22	3	17	8	15	2	3	22	20	68
15	Olimpija	93	52.8	19	33	57.6	9	20	45.0	28	35	80.0	20	9	12	2	6	1	2	27	30	100
16	@Cibona	71	32.2	11	29	37.9	8	30	26.7	25	28	89.3	18	10	13	14	18	2	1	27	26	65
17	@Borac	75	41.8	15	28	53.6	8	27	29.6	21	28	75.0	14	10	3	6	17	1	3	23	28	55
18	Široki	99	55.9	21	31	67.7	12	28	42.9	21	24	87.5	18	9	14	7	9	1	1	23	26	112
19	@Zagreb	92	43.7	18	31	58.1	13	40	32.5	17	17	100.0	16	13	19	7	15	1	0	26	0	67
20	Laško	91	50.0	21	36	58.3	8	22	36.4	25	29	86.2	20	3	15	11	13	5	1	18	23	103
21	@Bosna	122	60.3	32	42	76.2	12	31	38.7	22	28	78.6	19	7	21	15	14	3	0	27	0	111
22	Krka	92	52.8	14	28	50.0	14	25	56.0	22	25	88.0	20	3	15	8	8	1	2	24	22	99
23	@Zvezda	78	42.2	23	46	50.0	4	18	22.2	20	22	90.9	23	12	6	4	15	1	4	28	29	67
24	Maccabi	91	56.6	18	28	64.3	12	25	48.0	19	26	73.1	22	4	10	4	13	1	1	23	25	90
24	16:8 Total	2132	49.8	482	824		232	611		472	577		461	167	325	179	282	35	36	584	454	2025
	Average	88.8	49.8	58.5			38.0			81.8			19.2	7.0	13.5	7.5	11.8	1.5	1.5	24.3	18.9	84.4
	Season max	122	62.7	77.5%			56.0%			100.0%			33	13	31	15	18	5	4	30	31	127

2002/03				overall		FG2			FG3			FT			Rebs					Blck		Foul
		GP	Min	Pts	%	M	A	%	M	A	%	M	A	%	D	O	Ass	St	To	Fv	Ag	Cm	Rv	Val
4	Knežević, T.	1	02:00	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	-1
5	Vladović, J.	16	159:05	33	37.1	8	14	57.1	5	21	23.8	2	3	66.7	5	6	7	12	16	0	0	31	5	-2
6	Popović, M.	22	712:05	394	40.4	57	112	50.9	53	160	33.1	121	141	85.8	42	10	104	30	51	1	8	69	118	389
6	Popović, L.	6	19:00	9	20.0	2	3	66.7	0	7	0.0	5	8	62.5	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	2	5	1
7	Longin, B.	23	597:54	308	58.3	69	102	67.6	43	90	47.8	41	53	77.4	45	36	26	15	26	2	4	64	47	293
8	Perinčić, H.	21	689:05	200	45.7	45	76	59.2	30	88	34.1	20	27	74.1	121	28	11	22	18	2	4	66	22	222
9	Tvrdić, D.	11	257:03	144	47.0	11	26	42.3	28	57	49.1	38	42	90.5	24	3	7	7	13	0	3	26	22	117
9	Šamanić, M.	23	487:20	315	64.6	113	170	66.5	11	22	50.0	56	74	75.7	56	24	25	10	31	7	8	66	57	303
10	Špralja, Š.	19	167:47	68	63.0	29	46	63.0	0	0	0	10	16	62.5	11	8	0	2	13	2	2	33	9	29
11	Erjavec, M.	23	758:47	271	45.7	64	131	48.9	16	44	36.4	95	110	86.4	54	8	106	38	60	0	2	68	85	322
12	Dijan, T.	16	143:59	44	61.5	16	23	69.6	0	3	0.0	12	18	66.7	15	7	11	7	12	2	0	27	13	44
13	Banić, M.	11	93:43	33	69.6	16	23	69.6	0	0	0	1	2	50.0	5	4	2	3	1	2	2	21	3	20
13	Pavić, I.	2	07:26	0	0.0	0	0	0	0	2	0.0	0	0	0	0	0	2	3	1	0	0	1	0	1
14	Perković, J.	12	90:06	29	47.4	7	15	46.7	2	4	50.0	9	10	90.0	9	4	5	6	6	1	0	30	8	15
14	McDonald, M.	3	31:36	16	72.7	8	11	72.7	0	0	0	0	0	0	6	2	0	0	0	5	0	7	0	19
15	Meeks, M.	24	583:05	268	43.8	37	72	51.4	44	113	38.9	62	73	84.9	68	26	19	24	33	11	3	72	60	253

FG2, FG3 - Field Goals; FT - Free Throws; Min - Minutes; Pts - Points; M - Made; A - Attempted; Blck - Blocks; Fv - in Favoure of; Ag - Against; Foul - Foul; Cm - Committed; Rv - Received; Rebs - Rebounds; D - Defensive; O - Offensive; Ass - Assists; St - Steals; To - Turnover; Val - rank Value;