Vladimir Stankovic’s list: Top 10 anecdotes

By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net As Stankovic himself says: Well, this is the end of the season, so I wanted to do something a little more laid back and fun. I have a good collection of basketball anecdotes and I keep adding to the pile. Since I lived most of my life in the former Yugoslavia and Spain, it's logical that most of them come from those two countries, but I would be grateful to readers who want to add some more. The only condition is not to offend anyone, that the story has some spark to it and that is in good spirits. Proceed to read the stories! 10. PRISONERS In the mid-19650s, Ranko Zeravica, then a young coach, is on the bench of Radnicki Belgrade. The team had to travel to Skopje, some 400 km away from Belgrade. With no money at all in the club's account, Ranko called Ante Lambasa, then the president of the Radnicki sports society (and later president of the International Swimming Federation) and a high functionary at the Ministry of Interior. He found a 'solution' to the problem: the full team had to be at the station at the time the train to Skopje was leaving, and they had to go to the first car right behind the locomotive... The solution became apparent when two policemen received the team: they travelled for free as prisoners! 9. CLIMATE At the end of his great career as a coach, Aleksandar Gomelskiy, the famous colonel of Soviet basketball, worked in Tenerife in 1988-89. On December 30, he surprised his players and his assistants by scheduling a practice for the following morning. He also asked for a camera. The payers were not happy, but they had to oblige... The practice became a walk on the beach, barely doing anything, but it was recorded as a practice. At the end of the session, Gomleksiy ordered team delegate Alejandro Martinez to "go to the post office with the tape and send it to Moscow. There's two meters of snow and 20 degrees below zero there. I want to show my people how I am suffering the climate here!" 8. CHINESE WALL In 1975, the Spanish national team went on a historic tour of China. During the visit to the famous Great Wall, the team's masseuse and himself a former athlete, Jose Luis Torrado, and forward Chus Iradier, got into an argument about speed. In the end, they made a bet on a 100-meter race right then, right there. 100 meters were measured and the tourists were asked to clear the way and some referees were appointed. Witnesses say that Iradier, later a famous painter, won the bet. 7. FORGOTTEN During a Spanish League game between Baskonia Vitoria Gasteiz and Unicaja Malaga in March 2007, the players came out of the locker rooms after halftime and Carlos Cabezas, a Unicaja player at that point, went to the bathroom at the very last minute. Everyone came out without realizing that Cabezas was still inside! A few minutes into the second half, Unicaja Coach Sergio Scariolo called: "Carlos, get on the court!" But Cabezas, a world champion in 2006, was locked in the locker room waiting for someone to find him and let him out. 6. COMA It was a hot summer in Split in the 1990s. Bozo Skaro, a well-known local basketball journalist, was injured in a minor car accident. It was nothing serious, but he had to spend a few days in the hospital as precaution. The following day, when it was 40 degrees outside, Jugoplastika captain Rato Tvrdic and a couple of his friends came to visit. All of them were wearing coats, caps and scarves! Meanwhile, Skaro, lying on the bed, looked at his friends with a surprised look on his face. They said: "It's so cold! Nobody in Split remembers such a cold winter with such strong winds!" Skaro, scared and confused, didn't understand. Tvrdic said: "My friend, you didn't miss anything during these four months you've been in a coma. The most important thing is that you woke up and that you are now fine, thank God..." 5. SLEEPY When he was young, Vlade Divac had a reputation for being a great sleeper while playing for Partizan. One time he didn't make it to a game and he only woke up when coach Dusko Vujosevic went to his place after the game to see what happened. Another time, there was an early flight to Zadar, at about 6 am. Some 40 minutes after the plane had landed, a bus was waiting for the players. Divac went to the back row and immediately slept. The problem was that nobody noticed that he was sleeping, so all the players walked into the hotel and the bus parked in the garage. When he woke up, Divac had a good scare alone in a dark, locked bus. 4. PAJAMAS Before the 1967 world championship in Montevideo, Uruguay, the Yugoslav national team was playing in a preparation tournament. Kreso Cosic, not yet even 18 years old, was the youngest on the team. He shared a room with Rato Tvrdic. After lunch and before going to the game, the players had some time for a quick nap. While Tvrdic slept in the team jersey, ready to go, Cosic was in full pajamas. They slept late and when someone knocked at the door saying the bus was leaving without them, Tvrdic was ready in 30 seconds, while Cosic, still sleepy, was looking for his playing clothes. "Leave it kid, you will not play anyway. Just get your track suit." Tvrdic said. The win was in the bag and a few minutes before the end of the game, coach Ranko Zeravica gave the order: "Cosic, warm up." The young center, scared and ashamed for wearing pajamas instead of the national team jersey, hid behind a basket. Zeravica looked for him, but did not see him. Then, he sent Tvrdic to go find the young player. Tvrdic, guilty in some way of all the situation, came back with a message: "I am sorry to say, but the kid shit his pants. He cannot play." Zeravica, half angry and half surprised replied "I knew that he would never be a proper player." Of course, Zeravica was only joking as Cosic is for me – and many others – the best Yugoslav player ever. 3. PRESSING I have dozens of anecdotes about Lazar Lecic, a coach for several teams in Yugoslavia. Two of them are in this list. In a game between Olimpija and Rabotnicki, Lecic, of Macedonian origin, was coaching Olimpija against one of his former teams. Olimpija played badly and Lecic tried to change the game in their favor, but it just did not work. After a timeout, an Olimpija player started chasing the referee Dragas Jaksic, once one of the best refs in the country, across the court. He interrupted the game and asked Lecic what was up with his player. Lecic replied: "Look, you have been the other team's best player so far, so I had to order one of my players to play press defense on you!" Classic. 2. AUTO-BASKET This is part of the basketball history books. It was the eighthfinals of the 1962 EuroLeague, on January 18. We are in Varese, Italy, where Ignis and Real Madrid were playing the first game. With not much time left and the score tied, Madrid lost Clifford Luyk to fouls. He was their best player, period. Coach Pedro Ferrandiz ordered his players, after a timeout... to score on their own basket! Alocen did it and Ignis won 82-80. Ferrandiz wanted to avoid overtime and risking a possible larger loss. At the time, an auto-basket was not illegal and the referees had to allow it. At the beginning, fans celebrated thinking the Madrid player had gotten confused, but later they realized what was up and waited for Real Madrid outside the arena for hours. The Spanish team had to be escorted out by policemen. The following day, FIBA declared auto-baskets illegal, but Ferrandiz's idea worked: Madrid won the second game, 83-62. 1. MOUSTACHE In the Cup Winners Cup of 1975-76, Rabotnicki Skopje played against ASP Tour of France. At the break, Rabotnicki was losing by 53-38 and Dragan Radosavljevic, their only big man, had 4 fouls. At the break, Coach Lazar Lecic came up with this genius plan: he told the team masseuse to shave Radosavljevic's moustache and then gave him the jersey with number 4 that belonged to Nikiforovic, instead of his original 14. Radosavljevic managed to play the whole second half. ASP won 99-83 but in the second game, Rabotnicki won by 17 points, 107-90, to win the series.