Josip Đerđa
Encyclopedia
Josip Gjergja is a retired Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...

n basketball player. He was nominated for the Euroleague's 50 greatest contributors
50 Greatest Euroleague Contributors
The 50 Greatest Contributors in Euroleague History were chosen on February 3, 2008, in Madrid, Spain. The occasion was the fiftieth anniversary since the founding of the FIBA European Champions Cup, officially recognized as the predecessor to today's Euroleague.The list was made up of the...

 list in 2008.

Born in Zadar
Zadar
Zadar is a city in Croatia on the Adriatic Sea. It is the centre of Zadar county and the wider northern Dalmatian region. Population of the city is 75,082 citizens...

 to an Arbanasi
Arbanasi (group)
Arbanasi , also known as the Arbëreshë of Zara, are a population in Croatia of Albanian origin, who speak a local dialect of Gheg Albanian. Their name means Albanians in Croatian and is the toponymy of the first Arbanasi settlement in the region, which today is a suburb of...

 family, hence the variously transcribed name, this 1.76 m tall point guard wore KK Zadar
KK Zadar
KK Zadar is a Croatian professional basketball team from the city of Zadar playing in the A-1 Liga.Zadar is the place where Croatian basketball was born in 1930. Zadar's reputation has been of a basketball hotbed with a team that can capture trophies at any given moment...

's jersey for 18 consecutive seasons, thus becoming one of the club's legends alongside Krešimir Ćosić
Krešimir Cosic
Krešimir Ćosić was a Croatian professional basketball player who represented Yugoslavia internationally, a member of FIBA Hall of Fame and Basketball Hall of Fame...

. A three times Yugoslav Basketball League title winner from 1965 to 1968 and another two back to back ones in 1974 and 1975, he also lifted the national cup in 1970.

Pino (as he is commonly referred to) was also a member of the Yugoslav national team
Yugoslavia national basketball team
The Yugoslavian national basketball team represented the Kingdom and socialist Yugoslavia. Its of governing body was the Basketball Federation of Yugoslavia, whose seat was in Belgrade....

, winning two World Championship
FIBA World Championship
The FIBA World Championship is an international basketball competition contested by the men's national teams of the members of the International Basketball Federation , the sport's global governing body...

 silver medals in 1963
1963 FIBA World Championship
The 1963 FIBA World Championship was an international basketball competition hosted by Rio de Janeiro, Brazil from May 11 to 23 , 1963.- Competing nations :- Preliminary round :-Group A:-Group B:-Group C:-Classification round:...

 and 1967
1967 FIBA World Championship
The 1967 FIBA World Championship was an international basketball competition hosted by Montevideo, Uruguay from May 27 to June 11, 1967.-Venues:- Competing nations :- Preliminary round :-Group A:-Group B:-Group C:-Classification round:...

 as well as a Eurobasket
Eurobasket
The EuroBasket, also referred to as the FIBA European Basketball Championship, is the main basketball competition contested biennially by the men's national teams governed by FIBA Europe, the European zone within the International Basketball Federation. The championship was first held in 1935 and...

 silver medal in 1965
EuroBasket 1965
-Venues:-Final rankings:# # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # First roundGroup A - MoscowGroup B - Tbilisi-Places 13 - 16:-Places 9 - 12:-Places 5 - 8:-Places 1 - 4:-Finals:-Team rosters:...

. He also participated in two Olympic games in 1960
Basketball at the 1960 Summer Olympics
Basketball at the 1960 Summer Olympics was the fifth appearance of the sport in Olympic competition. 16 nations were admitted into the Olympic tournament, with many others being eliminated in a pre-Olympic tournament held earlier in the year from 13 to 20 August 1960 at the Sports Palace at Bologna...

 and 1964
Basketball at the 1964 Summer Olympics
Basketball contests at the 1964 Summer Olympics took place at the Yoyogi National Gymnasium in Tokyo, Japan from October 11 to October 23. The United States defeated the Soviet Union to win their sixth straight gold medal at this event, while Brazil earned the bronze against Puerto...

.

Following a coaching career after his retirement, he led the Croatian national team to the World Championship bronze medal in 1994
1994 FIBA World Championship
The 1994 FIBA World Championship was an international basketball competition hosted by Canada from August 4 to August 14, 1994. The tournament was held at SkyDome and Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto as well as at Copps Coliseum in Hamilton...

.

External links

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