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 National Cup
1998, 2000, 2003, 2005

Yugoslavian National Championship
1965, 1967, 1968, 1974, 1975, 1986

Yugoslavian National Cup
1970

 

2004/05		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	Cibona	79	41.2	22	37	59.5	6	31	19.4	17	21	81.0	14	8	8	12	11	3	1	28	26	66
2	@Široki	74	47.1	17	32	53.1	7	19	36.8	19	28	67.9	21	6	9	6	16	4	0	23	0	45
3	Split	81	54.1	24	39	61.5	9	22	40.9	6	10	60.0	24	7	11	19	14	6	1	20	20	101
4	@Slovan	68	36.8	14	33	42.4	7	24	29.2	19	29	65.5	22	10	1	2	7	2	0	25	24	51
5	Hemofarm	77	55.2	28	38	73.7	4	20	20.0	9	14	64.3	12	3	13	21	16	4	0	20	18	81
6	@Partizan	86	48.1	16	31	51.6	9	21	42.9	27	36	75.0	21	10	12	9	11	3	5	23	29	95
7	Helios	84	47.5	19	36	52.8	9	23	39.1	19	21	90.5	19	10	9	19	16	4	0	20	18	94
8	@Zagreb	91	51.5	23	38	60.5	11	28	39.3	12	23	52.2	26	11	15	8	7	3	1	20	22	105
9	Bosna	85	51.9	22	34	64.7	6	20	30.0	23	35	65.7	28	4	12	12	6	3	1	21	28	106
10	@Reflex	73	49.1	20	31	64.5	6	22	27.3	15	26	57.7	18	9	9	10	11	2	6	28	22	60
11	Šibenka	91	55.9	27	41	65.9	6	18	33.3	19	30	63.3	22	9	8	10	14	2	2	27	26	88
12	Laško	69	33.8	21	52	40.4	3	19	15.8	18	22	81.8	19	19	4	8	9	4	4	23	25	61
13	@Budućnost	97	48.6	30	52	57.7	5	20	25.0	22	36	61.1	24	16	13	7	12	3	8	29	31	91
14	Zvezda	107	51.5	28	44	63.6	6	22	27.3	33	43	76.7	18	11	11	17	12	2	2	23	30	117
15	@Olimpija	77	44.8	18	36	50.0	8	22	36.4	17	19	89.5	21	11	10	6	15	2	1	26	21	72
16	@Cibona	80	40.3	14	31	45.2	11	31	35.5	19	23	82.6	25	12	10	11	20	4	3	21	19	76
17	Široki	101	57.1	27	43	62.8	9	20	45.0	20	24	83.3	18	10	13	15	14	2	2	30	23	105
18	@Split	74	45.3	25	47	53.2	4	17	23.5	12	17	70.6	20	7	13	16	12	4	2	18	20	82
19	Slovan	98	52.9	20	34	58.8	7	17	41.2	37	44	84.1	19	8	12	18	15	5	1	18	33	128
20	@Hemofarm	84	47.5	17	34	50.0	11	25	44.0	17	26	65.4	20	9	15	6	14	1	4	23	28	82
21	Partizan	81	41.2	14	30	46.7	7	21	33.3	32	39	82.1	16	10	5	13	16	2	0	21	32	85
22	@Helios	78	41.1	15	34	44.1	8	22	36.4	24	35	68.6	18	7	7	7	14	2	1	22	30	68
23	Zagreb	83	44.1	15	29	51.7	11	30	36.7	20	28	71.4	22	9	11	7	14	1	4	29	21	66
24	@Bosna	73	38.0	14	32	43.8	5	18	27.8	30	33	90.9	24	3	5	5	16	0	4	30	31	57
25	Reflex	81	50.0	19	34	55.9	8	20	40.0	19	26	73.1	16	7	5	8	18	2	2	25	25	65
26	@Šibenka	88	50.0	21	33	63.6	7	23	30.4	25	33	75.8	15	7	15	12	12	1	2	21	24	91
27	@Laško	83	55.4	24	38	63.2	7	18	38.9	14	23	60.9	14	6	8	12	11	4	0	26	20	76
28	Budućnost	91	50.0	25	41	61.0	7	23	30.4	20	24	83.3	27	8	13	13	13	2	2	23	19	99
29	@Zvezda	86	46.0	19	38	50.0	10	25	40.0	18	27	66.7	16	11	16	8	11	0	1	28	25	79
30	Olimpija	71	44.3	21	41	51.2	6	20	30.0	11	13	84.6	24	11	11	5	18	4	2	18	20	72
31	@Partizan	72	40.0	14	29	48.3	8	26	30.8	20	25	80.0	9	5	12	11	19	2	4	25	25	50
31	19:12 Total	2563	47.1	633	1142		228	687		613	833		612	274	316	333	414	83	66	734	735	2514
	Average	82.7	47.1	55.4			33.2			73.6			19.7	8.8	10.2	10.7	13.4	2.7	2.1	23.7	23.7	81.1
	Season max	107	57.1	73.7%			45.0%			90.9%			28	19	16	21	20	6	8	30	33	128

2004/05				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	Štemberger, S.	28	763:53	249	37.8	43	94	45.7	33	107	30.8	64	79	81.0	49	2	46	29	37	0	4	85	71	180
5	Vladović, J.	27	612:21	234	39.1	44	92	47.8	33	105	31.4	47	62	75.8	34	17	64	41	43	1	4	74	60	195
6	Stipčević, R.	17	68:19	16	31.3	4	9	44.4	1	7	14.3	5	6	83.3	3	0	0	3	10	0	2	7	3	-6
7	Barać, P.	27	302:45	116	46.6	31	60	51.7	3	13	23.1	45	65	69.2	38	6	14	18	22	2	2	43	54	122
8	Johnson, J.	30	915:41	310	45.5	71	137	51.8	30	85	35.3	78	114	68.4	59	29	33	59	41	0	13	88	95	286
9	Čiklić, R.	11	54:30	24	47.6	7	14	50.0	3	7	42.9	1	3	33.3	4	0	3	5	9	0	2	13	4	3
10	Dijan, T.	1	06:00	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	0	-2
10	Špralja, Š.	22	202:34	67	53.5	23	41	56.1	0	2	0.0	21	32	65.6	33	13	1	3	10	4	1	35	18	62
11	Gečevski, T.	29	752:20	296	52.7	70	118	59.3	38	87	43.7	42	66	63.6	130	68	24	52	52	42	5	108	67	393
12	Hill, K.	25	849:37	426	41.6	70	151	46.4	64	171	37.4	94	128	73.4	72	20	99	60	89	10	12	67	146	443
13	Banić, M.	31	971:45	535	64.0	199	298	66.8	2	16	12.5	131	163	80.4	113	87	18	39	63	15	16	100	124	607
14	Lalić, J.	26	209:45	82	50.9	25	43	58.1	4	14	28.6	20	28	71.4	26	16	3	5	9	7	1	35	24	82
15	Naglić, A.	27	331:15	137	42.7	36	61	59.0	8	42	19.0	41	54	75.9	43	15	9	15	21	2	4	49	40	115
21	Tvrdić, D.	12	184:15	71	34.5	10	24	41.7	9	31	29.0	24	33	72.7	8	1	2	4	7	0	0	29	29	34

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;