The biggest success Croatia has achieved was at the1992 Barcelona Olympics when the team reached the final against theUnited States and won the silver medal. Croatia has also won one bronze medal at theFIBA World Cup and two bronze medals atEuroBasket.
After independence ofCroatia in 1991, the first official tournament played by Croatians were the1992 Summer Olympics inBarcelona. Croatia defeated theCIS team 75–74 and reached the final against theUSADream Team led byMichael Jordan. The USA won 85–117, but Croatia won its first medal at a major tournament in history.[8]
The next competition for Croatia was the1993 EuroBasket in Germany. Tragically, before the tournamentDražen Petrović died in a car accident on 7 June 1993 at the age of 28. Croatia still managed to reach the bronze medal game to defeatGreece 99–59.[9]
Croatia earned its third medal at the1994 FIBA World Cup in Canada. Croatia lost their semi-finals match againstRussia 64–66, but beat Greece once again 78–60 for the bronze medal. A similar occurrence happened at theEuroBasket 1995 in Greece. Croatia lost in the semi-finals 80–90 againstLithuania, but beat Greece 73–68 for the third time in a row in a bronze medal match. That medal to date was the last Croatian medal from any major tournament. At the1996 Summer Olympics Croatia finished in a subpar seventh place.[10]
At theEuroBasket 1997 in Spain, the new Croatian generation emerged, but ended in 11th place. Croatia failed to qualify for the2000,2004 and2012 Summer Olympics, but finished sixth in2008. Croatia also failed to qualify for the1998,2002 and2006World Cups. Although the team did manage to qualify in2010, before falling in the Round of 16. However, at theEuroBasket 2013, Croatia had its best tournament appearance since 1995, where the team finished in fourth place.[11]