Dino Rađa inducted into Basketball Hall of Fame

Following Krešimir Ćosić (1996), Dražen Petrović (2002) and Mirka Novosela (2002), Dino Rađa was the fourth Croat to be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield in the USA last night.

Dino Rađa was born on April 24th, 1967 in Split where he trained rowing, swimming and water polo in his early youth. However his true talent was discovered upon arrival to the Gripe basketball centre from where he quickly advanced to become a member of the Yugoslavian junior national team.

Rađa was a member of the team that won the European championship in 1986 and saw his bigeest career advance at the World Championsips in Bormio in 1987.

He won three Yugoslav national titled with Juplastika in 1988, 1989 and 1990, along with the Yugolsab Basketball Cup in 1990.

At the age of 22 Rađa Rađa saw unbelievable success in Munich when his Jugoplastika defeated Barcelona and Maccabi to become European champions. Rađa was a key player in these wins. He repeated the same success with his home team again in 1990 when Jugoplastika climbed to the top of European basketball in Zaragoza Spain, once again defeating Barcelona.

In 1990 Rađa wastraded to Il Messaggero in Rome and became the highest paid European basketball player. Italian reporters likened his transfer to that of Maradona. His five year contract in Italy was halted when he joined the Boston Celtics, the NBA’s most successful team, in 1993. His most successful seasons were in 1995 and 1996, however injuries took him back to Europe. With Panathinaikos he won two Greek championships, only to return to Croatian basketball again in 1999. He played for Zadar for a year and then Cibona Zagreb and Greek side Olympiacos. Rađa finished his career by returning to his home town Split where he won the Croatian championship in 2003. This was Split’s first championship title after Croatia gained independence.

Playing for the national team Rađa won the silver medal at the Olympic Games in Seoul with Yugoslavia in 1998, a feat that was repeated again in 1992.

At the World Championships in Buenos Aires in 1990 Rađa won the gold medal and in Toronto in 1994 he took home a bronze medal.

Following the awards ceremony a very emotional Rađa said that no number of games could have prepared him for such a stage. Rađa’s acceptance speech can be heard here.

Source: HRT