.jpg) Korać in 1963 | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1938-11-05)5 November 1938 |
| Died | 2 June 1969(1969-06-02) (aged 30) |
| Nationality | Serbian |
| Listed height | 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) |
| Listed weight | 207 lb (94 kg) |
| Career information | |
| Playing career | 1954–1969 |
| Position | Power forward |
| Number | 5, 14 |
| Career history | |
| 1954–1967 | OKK Beograd |
| 1967–1968 | Standard Liège |
| 1968–1969 | Petrarca Padova |
| Career highlights | |
| |
| Basketball Hall of Fame | |
| FIBA Hall of Fame | |
Radivoj Korać[a] (Serbian Cyrillic:Радивој Кораћ; 5 November 1938 – 2 June 1969) was a Serbian andYugoslav professionalbasketball player. He represented theYugoslavia national basketball team internationally. Korać is well-known for holding theEuroLeague's all-time single-game scoring record (since1958), at99 points scored, in a game versusAlviks Stockholm, during the1964–65 season,[1][2] and for once making 100 out of 100 free throws on a livetelevision show inBelgium.[3]
Korać died in a car crash in 1969, at the age of 30, andFIBA Europe later established theEuropean-wide third-tier levelFIBA Radivoj Korać Cup, in his remembrance, in 1971. Korać was named one ofFIBA's 50 Greatest Players in 1991. In 2002, theBasketball Federation of FR Yugoslavia named its top national domestic cup competition, theRadivoj Korać Cup, after him. He was enshrined into theFIBA Hall of Fame in 2007, and he was named one of the50 Greatest EuroLeague Contributors the following year in 2008. In 2022, he was inducted into theNaismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
Korać was born inSombor, in theKingdom of Yugoslavia. He started playing forOKK Beograd, at the age of 16, and played as a left-handedforward-center. Popularly nicknamed,Žućko ('Ginger'), andThe Golden Left Hand, he became one of the best, if not the best, player of theYugoslav First Federal League in the 1960s. In 1960, Korać was namedThe Best Athlete of Yugoslavia, andYugoslav Sportsman of the Year. He was thebest scorer of the Yugoslav First Federal League for seven seasons, which was a record. He scored a total of 5,185 points, in 169 games played in the Yugoslav League, for a career scoring average of 30.7 points per game. In 1962, in a Yugoslav First Federal League game againstMladost Zagreb, Korać scored 74 points.[4]
WithOKK Beograd, he won four Yugoslav League titles. Korać also played in multiple FIBA European Champions' Cup (EuroLeague) competitions with OKK Beograd. Korać was named a part of thebest European selection, in both 1964 and 1965. In a two-game playoff series againstSwedish League championsAlviks Stockholm, during the1964–65 season of theFIBA European Champions' Cup (EuroLeague), he scored 170 points. He scored71 points in the first game of the series, and 99 points in the second game of the series, for a series scoring average of 85 points per game.[5] He averaged 54.8 points per game that season, which is the highest single-season scoring average in the EuroLeague's history, since1958.
Korać's career scoring average in the EuroLeague was 43.6 points per game. He was also the best scorer in theBelgian League in 1968, while playing withStandard Liège, and theItalian League's best scorer in 1969, while playing withPadova.
Korać entered into the seniorYugoslavian national basketball team in 1958, and went on to win five silver medals, and one bronze medal with them, in a total of 157 international games. He was theEuroBasket'sTop Scorer 4 times (1959,1961,1963,1965), and wasnamed the MVP ofEuroBasket 1961. He also won the silver medal at both the1963 FIBA World Championship, and the1967 FIBA World Championship.
He was the Top Scorer of the1960 Summer Olympic Games,[6] and he won the silver medal at the1968 Summer Olympic Games. With Yugoslavia's senior men's national team, he scored 3,153 points in 157 games played, for a scoring average of 20.1 points per game.[7] He was the leading scorer in the 1960 games.[8]
Away from the basketball court, Korać enjoyed theatre, music, and reading books. He was a senior undergraduate, from theFaculty of Electrical Engineering (ETF), at theUniversity of Belgrade. Surprisingly, he once turned down a contract offer to play withRed Star Belgrade.
On Monday 2 June 1969, Korać died in acar crash, just outside ofSarajevo, on the road betweenVogošća andSemizovac. TheYugoslav Basketball Federation decided that no basketball games would be played in Yugoslavia, on 2 June again. He is interred in theAlley of Distinguished Citizens in theBelgrade New Cemetery.
In 1971,FIBA Europe established theFIBA Radivoj Korać Cup. After thethird-tier level European-wide Cup folded in the year 2002, theBasketball Federation of Serbia and Montenegro renamed its national domestic cup competition toRadivoj Korać Cup, which is the name it still carries today in Serbia.
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