Radivoj Korac
(1938-1969)
Hall of Fame Induction: 2022
Card Shown: 1980-81 Svijet
Sporta Yugoslavia
Position: PF
Height: 6’4″
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Radivoj Korac starred in the Yugoslav League and led Yugoslavia to an unexpected silver medal in the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City. A legend in Yugoslavia, Korac also had great success playing internationally throughout Europe for a variety of teams in different countries. He paved the way for players like Vlade Divac who would come after him. Tragically, Radivoj’s life ended too soon when he was killed in an automobile accident in the prime of his life at the age of thirty.
Awards and Honors
- Radivoj won seven Yugoslav League scoring titles, evidence of the consistent high-level scorer that he became. His career scoring average in Yugoslavia was 32.7 points per game.
- Korac was the leading scorer out of all players in the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome, averaging 24.1 points per game.
- In the 1968 Olympics, many people felt the Soviet Union had a legitimate chance to knock off the perpetual defending champion gold medalists, Team USA, and deny them the gold medal for the first time in Olympic basketball history. Instead, in the semifinals, Korac and the Yugoslav team upset the Russian team before losing in the final to the USA. Also on that silver medal winning Yugoslav team was Hall of Famer Kresimir Cosic.
- Korac won two silver medals in the FIBA World Cup in 1963 and 1967. He added two more silver medals at EuroBasket in 1961 and 1965 and a bronze medal at EuroBasket in 1963.
- In 1991, FIBA named Radivoj one of its greatest 50 players. Korac was inducted into the FIBA Hall of Fame in 2007 as part of that institution’s first Hall of Fame class. Also in that inaugural FIBA class were James Naismith, Drazen Petrovic, and Cosic.
Points of Interest
- On January 14, 1965, Radivoj set the all-time Euroleague single-game scoring record with 99 points. His team, OKK Belgrade, defeated Alvik Stockholm 155-57.
- On a Belgian television show, Korac was once asked how may out of 100 free throws he thought he could make. His answer was somewhere between seventy and eighty. When they revealed a basket on the tv set, Korac got up, and using his traditional Rick Barry granny-style free throws, made all 100 while still in street clothes.
- Radivoj was an interesting personality who had many talents and interests outside the realm of the basketball court. He was said to read the classics by authors such as Faulkner and Joyce, he enjoyed the theater and opera, he studied electrical engineering, and was good at chess.
- Korac was tragically killed in a car accident as he drove from Sarajevo to Belgrade the morning after an exhibition game. He attempted to pass a car on a single-lane road and ran head-on into a truck. Radivoj was only thirty years old when he died.
- Spencer Haywood (who along with Jo Jo White, Charlie Scott, and the rest of Team USA, defeated Radivoj and Yugoslavia in the 1968 Olympics) was Korac’s presenter when he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
Statistics
Radivoj Korac Olympic Statistics
provided by Basketball-Reference.com