In the history of European basketball, only two clubs can say they have stood tall over the whole continent as champion for three straight seasons. One was the first-ever champion, ASK Riga of present-day Latvia. The other is Split of Croatia. As the only modern club to win a three-peat - as it did at the 1989, 1990 and 1991 Final Fours - the team then known as Jugoplastika and Pop 84 remains a mythical European king. And in 2002-03, one of the legendary players who made that miracle happen returned to lead Split into a new and triumphant era. Since the start of the Croatian League in 1992, no team had been able to dethrone mighty Cibona through 11 successive seasons. No team, that is, until Split swept to the title last spring. It was the reaffirmation of a mighty tradition that stretched well before the European three-peat so well-known outside Croatia, or the four Yugoslav leagues and two Yugoslav cups won almost simultaneously in the late 1980s. Way back in 1972, in fact, Jugoplastika had been on the cusp of a European crown but lost in the final by a single point to the mightiest power of the era, Ignis Varese of Italy. During that decade, Jugoplastika made its name, winning two Yugoslav league titles, three national cup crowns and a pair of Korac Cups, in 1976 and 1977. The taste for consecutive titles was being cultivated even then. After the great successes of 1989-1991, Split did not sleep. It put together a string of three Croatian Cup victories from 1992 to 1994 and tacked on a fourth in 1997. But a league crown was elusive until last season, when legend Dino Radja returned to help complete the effort. Radja then retired to become president of the club, assuring that the name Split will never be far from a discussion of the greatest European teams ever.

TROPHY CASE:

(*) European Championship League
1989, 1990, 1991
(*) Korac cup
1976, 1977
(*) Croatian League
2003
(*) Croatian cup
1992, 1993, 1994, 1997
(*) Yugoslavian league
1971, 1977, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991
(*) Yugoslavian cup
1972, 1974, 1977, 1990, 1991

 

2001/02		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	Triglav	79	45.0	19	40	47.5	8	20	40.0	18	30	60.0	23	11	10	6	17	0	0	21	0	46
2	@Budućnost	75	46.3	19	40	47.5	6	14	42.9	19	32	59.4	18	9	4	1	12	1	0	26	0	28
3	Cibona	70	42.9	18	40	45.0	6	16	37.5	16	21	76.2	16	4	15	14	17	2	0	26	0	41
4	Laško	72	55.8	28	44	63.6	1	8	12.5	13	23	56.5	16	10	8	13	22	1	0	25	0	40
5	@Zadar	103	53.6	26	46	56.5	11	23	47.8	18	25	72.0	25	5	15	10	8	1	0	24	0	88
6	Olimpija	60	33.3	15	44	34.1	3	10	30.0	21	34	61.8	12	9	7	9	19	1	0	29	0	1
7	@Bosna	77	42.1	17	40	42.5	7	17	41.2	22	31	71.0	18	9	14	12	9	1	0	28	0	52
8	Dita	85	53.7	25	41	61.0	4	13	30.8	23	25	92.0	10	13	17	11	28	4	0	29	0	56
9	@Široki	83	54.5	22	37	59.5	8	18	44.4	15	24	62.5	17	7	8	6	15	3	0	23	0	52
10	Krka	84	48.5	24	51	47.1	8	15	53.3	12	17	70.6	17	8	13	6	9	1	0	27	0	54
11	@Slovan	91	53.1	31	50	62.0	3	14	21.4	20	29	69.0	18	7	5	9	13	2	0	28	0	52
12	@Triglav	81	54.0	30	50	60.0	4	13	30.8	9	10	90.0	16	8	6	2	5	2	0	22	0	58
13	Budućnost	84	43.3	24	53	45.3	5	14	35.7	21	28	75.0	20	12	9	7	8	2	0	29	0	52
14	@Cibona	94	38.3	20	51	39.2	11	30	36.7	21	28	75.0	19	17	16	12	8	3	0	23	0	73
15	@Laško	94	50.7	27	48	56.3	7	19	36.8	19	23	82.6	12	13	6	7	14	0	0	26	0	55
16	Zadar	70	36.6	23	57	40.4	3	14	21.4	15	19	78.9	23	13	12	10	13	2	0	23	0	45
17	@Olimpija	76	43.1	24	50	48.0	4	15	26.7	16	25	64.0	21	12	12	9	12	2	0	24	0	50
18	Bosna	82	52.7	24	39	61.5	5	16	31.3	19	24	79.2	17	12	9	19	11	0	0	22	0	75
19	@Dita	72	42.9	24	50	48.0	3	13	23.1	15	22	68.2	22	10	10	10	15	0	0	23	0	43
20	Široki	91	45.7	24	43	55.8	8	27	29.6	17	20	85.0	19	6	13	15	8	1	0	25	0	71
21	@Krka	56	30.8	19	50	38.0	1	15	6.7	15	23	65.2	22	12	3	10	19	3	0	26	0	8
22	Slovan	95	55.9	28	46	60.9	10	22	45.5	9	18	50.0	14	7	14	21	14	1	0	22	0	77
22	10:12 Total	1774	46.3	511	1010		126	366		373	531		395	214	226	219	296	33	0	551	0	1117
	Average	80.6	46.3	50.6			34.4			70.2			18.0	9.7	10.3	10.0	13.5	1.5	0.0	25.0	0.0	50.8
	Season max	103	55.9	63.6%			53.3%			92.0%			25	17	17	21	28	4	0	29	0	88

2001/02				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	Subotić, S.	22	671:38	251	36.0	50	119	42.0	21	78	26.9	88	114	77.2	38	16	47	35	44	1	0	65	0	127
5	Mimica, I.	22	479:24	213	41.8	28	65	43.1	46	112	41.1	16	23	69.6	17	3	23	28	34	1	0	71	0	70
6	Tomeljak, I.	20	484:00	123	40.4	30	60	50.0	12	44	27.3	30	40	75.0	16	8	39	29	33	1	0	51	0	60
7	Kuqo, E.	18	304:54	154	54.0	66	119	55.5	2	7	28.6	16	23	69.6	42	21	9	10	23	2	0	57	0	93
8	Žižić, A.	22	597:34	371	55.2	143	253	56.5	1	8	12.5	82	112	73.2	74	44	25	28	37	6	0	74	0	290
9	Rančić, D.	18	306:38	90	34.8	16	40	40.0	8	29	27.6	31	39	79.5	22	4	17	18	18	1	0	35	0	46
10	Ukić, R.	22	391:52	128	38.0	31	85	36.5	15	36	41.7	22	31	71.0	8	14	20	26	22	2	0	44	0	48
11	Poljak, J.	11	228:35	107	59.2	41	67	61.2	1	4	25.0	22	33	66.7	31	20	9	7	24	9	0	37	0	82
12	Pašalić, D.	8	51:38	23	60.0	7	10	70.0	2	5	40.0	3	4	75.0	5	3	0	2	2	1	0	6	0	19
13	Grgurević, A.	21	597:56	242	53.6	81	146	55.5	8	20	40.0	57	102	55.9	122	72	32	27	45	7	0	76	0	259
14	Tolić, I.	1	03:46	0	0.0	0	1	0.0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	1	0	-2
15	Oršulić, H.	16	271:54	72	41.2	18	45	40.0	10	23	43.5	6	10	60.0	20	9	5	8	13	2	0	34	0	25

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;