By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
Mirko Novosel, one of the greatest figures in the history of Yugoslavian basketball, passed away at the age of 86 Thursday (20/7). The Croatian coach was a member of both the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and the FIBA Hall of Fame.
A longtime head coach of the Yugoslavian national team during the 70s and 80s, Novosel led the squad to the gold medal in the 1973 and 1975 EuroBasket, the silver medal in the 1974 World Cup and the 1976 Olympic Games, along with the bronze medal in the Olympics of 1984.
In 1993, Novosel was the coach of the Croatian national team in the 1993 EuroBasket, winning the bronze medal.
On a club level, Novosel coached Cibona Zagreb towards the back-to-back EuroLeague championship titles of 1985 and 1986, along with the Saporta Cups of 1982 and 1987.
Novosel was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, as a coach, in 2007 and entered the FIBA Hall of Fame in 2010.
“Mirko, for me personally, through all that he did for Yugoslavian, Croatian and Zagreb basketball, is the greatest! And he is also responsible for my and Drazen’s arrival in Zagreb,” wrote Croatia head coach Aco Petrovic, the older brother of the late Drazen Petrovic, on Twitter. “Mirko, rest in peace.”