By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Drazen Dalipagic, a European basketball legend and Hall of Famer, died at 73 years of age after a long battle with a serious illness according to multiple media.
A member of both the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and the FIBA Hall of Fame, Dalipagic was born in Mostar of Bosnia and Herzegovina (then Yugoslavia) in 1951. He began his career in 1971 with Partizan Belgrade and emerged as an immensely prolific scorer.
With the Yugoslavian national team, Dalipagic won the 1973, 1975 and 1977 EuroBasket titles, named MVP during the latter. A year later, he led Yugoslavia to the gold medal in the 1978 World Cup, claiming MVP once again, along with and leading scorer honors.
In 1980, Dalipagic became an Olympic gold medalist with Yugoslavia. He won several other medals in the Olympics, World Championship and EuroBasket competitions.
On a club level, Dalipagic became a Korac Cup champion in 1978 and 1979 and was the Finals Top Scorer in 1974 and 1978 with Partizan. To this day, he remains the all-time leading scorer in the history of the club.
He also played in Spain with Real Madrid in 1982-83 and Italy with Reyer Venezia from 1985 to 1988. He led the Italian League in scoring in 1988 at 37 years of age.
In 2004, Dalipagic became just the fifth European player to be enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame after Sergei Belov, Kresimir Kosic, Dino Meneghin and Drazen Petrovic.
Photo: FIBA Basketball