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 Championship
2005

Croatian National Cup
1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006

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

Yugoslavian National Cup
1970

 

2005/06		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	Olimpija	80	43.3	17	34	50.0	9	26	34.6	19	31	61.3	18	12	7	10	7	3	2	22	26	79
2	@Zvezda	69	33.3	17	44	38.6	5	22	22.7	20	27	74.1	25	11	7	13	16	3	5	32	20	44
3	Cibona	86	50.8	23	39	59.0	7	20	35.0	19	24	79.2	19	5	6	11	8	0	1	23	25	86
4	@Vojvodina	100	51.8	21	35	60.0	8	21	38.1	34	41	82.9	24	5	20	16	14	1	2	29	33	120
5	Široki	77	37.5	13	32	40.6	14	40	35.0	9	13	69.2	20	14	5	14	12	3	2	24	19	65
6	@Slovan	81	45.5	21	37	56.8	4	18	22.2	27	31	87.1	15	3	4	8	8	3	0	23	24	73
7	Helios	92	55.4	24	36	66.7	7	20	35.0	23	30	76.7	26	11	16	12	18	3	1	29	25	105
8	@Partizan	73	42.1	17	31	54.8	7	26	26.9	18	27	66.7	17	4	12	15	14	4	2	26	26	67
9	Zagreb	84	45.9	20	42	47.6	8	19	42.1	20	25	80.0	19	6	14	14	10	5	1	15	20	98
10	@Bosna	66	35.8	16	35	45.7	3	18	16.7	25	32	78.1	16	11	3	11	16	1	2	25	26	50
11	Laško	94	54.7	24	41	58.5	11	23	47.8	13	16	81.3	17	4	16	17	12	3	4	21	18	100
12	FMP	79	41.4	17	40	42.5	7	18	38.9	24	31	77.4	12	8	7	10	8	2	1	21	30	77
13	@Hemofarm	72	42.9	18	33	54.5	6	23	26.1	18	28	64.3	14	14	10	9	9	5	2	27	26	70
14	@Olimpija	91	52.6	18	29	62.1	12	28	42.9	19	22	86.4	16	6	12	6	9	1	0	26	24	91
15	Zvezda	88	40.0	13	26	50.0	13	39	33.3	23	30	76.7	21	13	4	15	9	3	0	24	23	88
16	@Cibona	86	58.6	25	38	65.8	9	20	45.0	9	22	40.9	19	6	13	9	15	1	0	30	25	77
17	Vojvodina	81	41.8	23	50	46.0	5	17	29.4	20	29	69.0	19	18	12	15	13	4	3	32	26	79
18	@Široki	113	63.6	30	43	69.8	12	23	52.2	17	21	81.0	25	5	16	7	5	4	0	34	22	125
19	Slovan	66	44.0	16	30	53.3	6	20	30.0	16	28	57.1	13	5	10	13	14	4	1	28	25	53
20	@Helios	83	47.1	16	27	59.3	8	24	33.3	27	38	71.1	16	9	11	8	17	4	2	35	31	70
21	Partizan	110	43.1	17	37	45.9	8	21	38.1	52	70	74.3	31	12	10	6	14	2	1	39	44	110
22	@Zagreb	73	40.6	20	32	62.5	6	32	18.8	15	21	71.4	20	15	13	10	18	7	0	27	23	72
23	Bosna	80	50.9	19	33	57.6	8	20	40.0	18	31	58.1	17	8	14	14	14	7	1	30	25	81
24	@Laško	99	54.4	25	40	62.5	12	28	42.9	13	18	72.2	19	10	8	11	8	5	3	25	21	101
25	@FMP	78	43.5	24	39	61.5	3	23	13.0	21	28	75.0	22	8	7	10	11	5	5	27	27	72
26	Hemofarm	81	46.9	17	37	45.9	13	27	48.1	8	9	88.9	22	7	10	9	6	2	2	20	15	83
27	@Partizan	81	44.2	21	32	65.6	2	20	10.0	33	41	80.5	19	3	13	8	14	2	1	27	31	78
27	14:13 Total	2263	46.3	532	972		213	636		560	764		521	233	280	301	319	87	44	721	680	2214
	Average	83.8	46.3	54.7			33.5			73.3			19.3	8.6	10.4	11.1	11.8	3.2	1.6	26.7	25.2	82.0
	Season max	113	63.6	69.8%			52.2%			88.9%			31	18	20	17	18	7	5	39	44	125

2005/06				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.	26	544:15	154	34.8	25	62	40.3	22	73	30.1	38	50	76.0	29	13	35	25	20	1	1	65	50	121
5	Vladović, J.	25	529:00	191	40.9	37	71	52.1	28	88	31.8	33	42	78.6	28	9	37	37	25	0	4	78	46	138
5	Oršulić, H.	10	67:30	17	42.9	6	12	50.0	0	2	0.0	5	6	83.3	7	1	0	2	5	0	0	9	3	7
6	Filipović, M.	3	05:15	3	25.0	1	3	33.3	0	1	0.0	1	2	50.0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1
7	Barać, P.	26	465:15	206	56.1	62	101	61.4	12	31	38.7	46	73	63.0	52	11	21	21	44	1	1	53	62	191
8	Johnson, J.	23	635:15	213	42.0	50	98	51.0	23	76	30.3	44	67	65.7	37	15	21	36	24	8	7	60	62	177
9	Čiklić, R.	9	41:00	17	36.8	6	14	42.9	1	5	20.0	2	3	66.7	2	0	2	2	2	0	1	5	2	4
10	Oliver, D.	27	735:00	333	37.4	46	115	40.0	46	131	35.1	103	132	78.0	44	17	89	57	42	1	7	81	123	351
11	Gečevski, T.	26	726:30	376	56.2	107	169	63.3	24	64	37.5	90	121	74.4	133	68	24	47	61	52	6	96	95	499
12	Tvrdić, D.	24	478:30	239	39.9	28	52	53.8	29	91	31.9	96	108	88.9	32	2	18	20	20	0	2	62	72	201
13	Čolak, F.	27	495:45	211	61.7	80	123	65.0	2	10	20.0	45	73	61.6	72	60	7	27	21	0	6	82	73	262
14	Lalić, J.	24	333:15	143	48.9	36	67	53.7	10	27	37.0	41	57	71.9	37	18	6	17	22	15	4	67	55	134
15	Šamanić, M.	6	36:30	20	53.3	6	10	60.0	2	5	40.0	2	2	100.0	4	1	6	0	6	1	0	4	2	17
15	Patterson, A.	12	221:30	103	51.3	25	45	55.6	14	31	45.2	11	21	52.4	29	10	12	7	22	8	4	48	22	70
15	Whorton, J.	5	105:15	33	53.6	15	28	53.6	0	0	0	3	7	42.9	14	8	1	1	5	0	1	10	11	35
20	Tičina, P.	1	05:15	4	66.7	2	2	100.0	0	1	0.0	0	0	0	0	0	1	2	0	0	0	1	1	6

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;