1971–72 Yugoslav First Basketball League

The 1971–72 Yugoslav First Basketball League season was the 28th season of the Yugoslav First Basketball League, the top-tier professional basketball league in SFR Yugoslavia.

Yugoslav First Basketball League
Season	1971–72
Duration	6 November 1971 – 27 April 1972
Games played	22 each
Teams	12
Regular season
Relegated	Oriolik
Finals
Champions	Crvena zvezda
Runners-up	Jugoplastika
Statistical leaders
Points Radmilo Mišović 31.3[1][2]
← 1970–71 1972–73 →

Notable events

Early pacesetters: Zvezda, Jugoplastika, and Lokomotiva

The season began on 6 November 1971^[3] with Crvena zvezda, defending champion Jugoplastika, Lokomotiva, and Olimpija tipped as main title contenders by the observers.^[1]

Olimpija fell out of the title contention almost immediately, recording several losses in their first few games of the season while Crvena zvezda and Lokomotiva jumped to the top of the standings early on. Jugoplastika also kept pace with the standings leaders while Borac Čačak, finding success behind Radmilo Mišović's scoring exploits, and Radnički Belgrade became the early season's surprise packages.^[1]

In week 4 of the season, Crvena zvezda and Jugoplastika played a hard-fought game in Belgrade's Hala sportova with Zvezda coming out on top 98–86. In addition to highly competitive basketball and Zoran Slavnić's exceptional performance, the game is also remembered for the bench-clearing brawl that occurred with four minutes to go in the contest after Jugoplastika's point guard Rato Tvrdić punched Zvezda's shooting guard Duci Simonović.^[1]

Zadar vs Zvezda on Catholic Christmas 1971

On Saturday, 25 December 1971, as part of the season's week 8, KK Zadar and Crvena zvezda faced off at KK Zadar's Jazine home court—a tense and incident-filled contest remembered for the extremely hostile atmosphere with nationalist and sectarian overtones directed towards the visiting team by the home fans.^[1] Scheduled to be played on Catholic Christmas—a holiday not officially celebrated in communist SFR Yugoslavia—the game featured tensions even before tip off as the visiting Crvena zvezda players and personnel had to be escorted by police from the moment of their arrival in Zadar.^[1]

As the teams entered the Jazine court before the game, the hosts decided to power off the arena lights while the only light in the hall was provided from the thousands of candles distributed out to the gathered spectators. Following the tip off, Zadar fans began throwing the said candles onto the court, continuing to do so throughout the game while the referees — brothers Janko and Petar Kavčić from Ljubljana — didn't stop the contest out of fear of enraging the crowd even more.^[1] Among the verbal abuse hurled at Zvezda players were hate speech chants "Srbe na vrbe".^[4] With five minutes to go in the close game, Zadar's best player and leading scorer Josip Gjergja twisted his ankle after stepping on one of the candles littering the court and had to leave the contest. Zvezda ended up winning 60–61.^[1]

As soon as the game ended, Zvezda players were surrounded by police mid-court as the angry Zadar fans tried to physically accost the visiting team.^[1] Shortly, even the army had to be called in as re-enforcement in order to escort the visiting team out of the arena.^[1] In the chaos and confusion while the Zvezda players were surrounded by army recruits out on the court, a young female Zadar fan got in-between two of the soldiers guarding Zvezda players and stabbed Zvezda's shooting guard Ivan Sarjanović in the upper thigh with a compass.^[1]

Teams

SR Croatia Lokomotiva Jugoplastika Oriolik Zadar Željezničar Karlovac

SR Serbia Borac Čačak Crvena Zvezda OKK Beograd Partizan Radnički Belgrade

SR Macedonia Rabotnički

SR Slovenia Olimpija

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Jugoplastika	22	17	5	1928	1736	+192	39	Advance to single game title playoff
2	Crvena zvezda	22	17	5	1986	1832	+154	39
3	Lokomotiva	22	14	8	1956	1874	+82	36
4	Radnički Beograd	22	14	8	2007	1955	+52	36
5	Rabotnički	22	11	11	1769	1752	+17	33
6	Partizan	22	11	11	1810	1802	+8	33
7	Olimpija	22	10	12	1917	1863	+54	32
8	OKK Beograd	22	10	12	1758	1763	−5	32
9	Borac Čačak	22	9	13	1964	1951	+13	31
10	Zadar	22	7	15	1793	1926	−133	29
11	Željezničar Karlovac	22	7	15	1743	1913	−170	29
12	Oriolik	22	5	17	1621	1885	−264	27	Relegation to the First B League

Source: Strategija

Results

Home \ Away	JUG	CZV	LOK	RAD	RAB	PAR	OLI	OKK	BOR	ZAD	ŽKA	ORI
Jugoplastika	—	93–92	64–77	97–68	100–74	68–64	104–84	89–77	99–79	79–74	116–100	109–68
Crvena Zvezda	98–86	—	109–89	103–99	81–75	101–85	96–93	99–83	98–87	105–85	109–91	91–82
Lokomotiva	91–84	84–89	—	86–75		83–88	95–93	81–75	78–76	110–103	98–77	111–70
Radnički Belgrade	83–86	94–96	113–104	—	108–93	102–86		96–87		82–73		111–86
Rabotnički	69–71	68–65	84–72	80–82	—	83–77	103–86	62–61	92–90		114–81	101–73
Partizan	95–98	78–80	82–73	80–83	72–66	—	102–92	82–76	90–89	93–72	89–71	78–70
Olimpija	74–70		92–88	104–78	98–83	99–92	—	72–84	88–77		104–85	102–69
OKK Beograd	70–82	83–80	85–87	106–96	73–75	81–72	87–77	—	88–73	79–77	73–75	81–69
Borac Čačak	89–81	89–86	106–84		100–88	88–80	101–96	78–85	—	121–96	101–77	102–93
Zadar	88–100	60–61	97–102		82–77	80–65	88–84	81–91	87–86	—		99–88
Željezničar Karlovac	61–85	87–96			68–67	84–86	73–67	76–70	79–70	80–75	—	81–61
Oriolik	61–67		74–83	75–95	63–64	63–74	76–65	72–75	78–77	74–68	87–80	—

Source: Partizanopedia.rs
Legend: Blue = home team win; Red = away team win.
Matches with lighter background shading were decided after overtime.

^{[5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27]}

Single-game title playoff

Due to Crvena Zvezda and Jugoplastika being tied for the top spot with identical 17–5 records at the end of the season, the champion was decided in a one-game playoff between the two teams since, as stipulated by the Basketball Federation of Yugoslavia regulations, points difference wasn't legitimate criteria to determine a league champion in case of a tie at the top. The regulations further stated that the deciding game's venue had to be neutral and mutually agreed upon between the two teams. Crvena Zvezda requested Sarajevo while Jugoplastika wanted Ljubljana.^[1] Due to the teams' inability to agree, the venue was decided by coin toss that was won by Jugoplastika.^[1][28]

Accordingly, the game ended up being played in Ljubljana's Tivoli Hall on Thursday, 27 April 1972. In a close game (Jugoplastika was up by four 35–39 at halftime), Zvezda's playmaker Zoran Slavnić hit a shot within final thirty seconds for a 67–67 tie at the end of regulation.^[1] Zvezda ended up winning 75–70 largely behind Zoran Lazarević's 12 points, all of which he scored towards the end of regulation and in overtime.^[1]

27 April 1972 20:30

Boxscore

Crvena Zvezda	75–70 (OT)	Jugoplastika
Scoring by half: 35–39, 32–28 Overtime: 8–3
Pts: Simonović 20		Pts: Šolman 18

Tivoli Hall, Ljubljana Attendance: 4,500 Referees: Brumen (Ljubljana), Popovski (Titov Veles)

Starters: Pts Reb Ast PG 15 Zoran Slavnić 17 SG 11 Ljubodrag Simonović 20 SF 10 Dragan Kapičić 8 PF 5 Zoran Lazarević 12 C 12 Dragiša Vučinić 15 Reserves: PG 4 Goran Rakočević 0 SF 6 Ivan Sarjanović 6 C 7 Božidar Pešić 0 SF 8 Vladimir Cvetković 0 F/C 9 Zoran Latifić 0 F/C 13 Ljupče Žugić 0 C 14 Tihomir Pavlović 0 Head coach: Bratislav Đorđević

Crvena zvezda Jugoplastika 0 1971–72 Yugoslav First Basketball League Champions Crvena zvezda 12th title

Starters: Pts Reb Ast PG 10 Ratomir Tvrdić 6 SG 8 Branko Macura 7 SF 12 Damir Šolman 18 PF 13 Duje Krstulović 0 C 15 Petar Skansi 15 Reserves: PG 4 Drago Peterka 6 C 6 Mihajlo Manović 11 PF 7 Ivo Škarić 0 SF 9 Zoran Grašo 0 C 11 Lovre Tvrdić 0 C 14 Zdenko Prug 0 Head coach: Branko Radović

Winning Roster

The winning roster of Crvena Zvezda:^[29][28]

• Goran Rakočević
• Zoran Lazarević
• Ivan Sarjanović
• Božidar Pešić
• Vladimir Cvetković
• Života Bogosavljević
• Dragan Kapičić
• Ljubodrag Simonović
• Dragiša Vučinić
• Zoran Latifić
• Tihomir Pavlović
• Zoran Slavnić
• Risto Kubura
• Ljupče Žugić
• Bogosav Stefanović

Coach: Bratislav Đorđević

Qualification in 1972-73 season European competitions

FIBA European Champions Cup

• Crvena Zvezda (champions)

FIBA Cup Winner's Cup

• Jugoplastika (Cup winners)

FIBA Korać Cup

• Lokomotiva (3rd)
• Rabotnički (5th)

Basketball Cup

Bracket

	Eightfinals				Quarterfinals				Semifinals				Finals
	Kombinat Zrenjanin	77
	Lokomotiva	81
					Lokomotiva	106
					Oriolik	88
	Željezničar Sarajevo	64
	Oriolik	68
									Lokomotiva	92
									Crvena zvezda	89
	Crvena zvezda	83
	OKK Beograd	74
					Crvena zvezda	93
					Radnički Belgrade	75
	Radnički Belgrade	78
	Partizan	70
													Lokomotiva	88
													Jugoplastika	81
	Olimpija	88
	Borac Čačak	83
					Olimpija	90
					Jugoplastika	102
	Jugoplastika	79
	Rabotnički	74
									Jugoplastika
									Kvarner
	Kvarner	71
	Borac Banja Luka	66
					Kvarner	94
					Vrhnika	75
	Akademik Titograd	56
	Vrhnika	78

^[30][31][32]

References

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