Club info
KK Cibona Zagreb regained the Croatian League championship last season and enters 2012-13 ready to start its climb back to the top levels of European basketball. Last season Cibona saw its streak of 20 straight seasons in Europe’s premier basketball competition – the Turkish Airlines Euroleague – end and the team slumped through a winless Eurocup campaign, but rebounded nicely in Croatia with a 14-0 regular season en route to its 16th league championship. Cibona boasts a long and rich basketball tradition, including five continental titles and two Euroleague crowns. Founded in 1946, Cibona won its first trophy - the Yugoslavian Cup - in 1969 and added a Korac Cup in 1972 with Nikola Plecas and Damir Rukavina as its main players. Cibona lifted the Cup Winners' Cup trophy in 1982 by downing Real Madrid in the final, in addition to three Yugoslavian championships and five Yugoslavian Cup titles between 1980 and 1985. The late Drazen Petrovic soon helped Cibona become the best team in Europe along with brother Aca and players like Mihovil Nakic, Zoran Cutura, Franjo Arapovic and Danko Cvjeticanin. Drazen Petrovic scored 26 of his 36 points in the second half of the 1985 Euroleague final as Cibona downed Madrid 87-78 to claim its first Euroleague title. The Petrovic brothers then led the team to a second title in 1986 by beating Zalgiris 94-82 in Budapest, Hungary. Cibona added a second Cup Winners' Cup title in 1987 by beating Scavolini Pesaro and made it the Korac Cup finals in 1988 before Drazen Petrovic left the team for good. However after the Croatian League opened in the early 1990s, Cibona built another dynasty with 11 consecutive national titles and five Croatian Cups through 2002. Cibona soon started to reach the Euroleague Top 16 on regular basis, often bringing a lot of drama to the final games of the regular season. After a few quiet seasons, Cibona bounced back in 2009 and ’10 by winning both the Croatian League and Cup titles and making it to the Euroleague Top 16 each season. The crown jewel of Croatian club basketball fell on hard times over the past two seasons, but a strong finish to last year bodes well for the future. Cibona looks to regroup with former player Veljko Mrsic now guiding the team as head coach and there is every reason to expect great things to come.
Trophy Case
Euroleague: 1985, 1986
Cup of Cups: 1982, 1987
Korac Cup: 1972
Euroleague Opening Tournament: 2001
Croatian National League: 1991-92, 1992-93, 1993-94, 1994-95, 1995-96, 1996-97, 1997-98, 1998-99, 1999-00, 2002-03, 2003-04, 2005-06, 2006-07, 2008-09, 2009-10, 2012-13
Croatian National Cup: 1995, 1996, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2009, 2013
Yugoslav National League: 1981-82, 1983-84, 1984-85
Yugoslav National Cup: 1969, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1985, 1986, 1988