1. STORY: ALIEN IDENTIFIER begins with the selection of Rusmir Halilović in a public competition for a professional federal coach in the Basketball Federation of Yugoslavia (KSJ) for younger age categories. Upon arriving from Dubrovnik, where I lived, to Belgrade to sign a four-year professional contract, when I asked what I could thank for, KSJ general secretary Sonja Mladenović answered me: “During individual interviews with all candidates on the topic of which Plan & Program they proposed, all applicants offered the same thing—that their goal was producing results with younger national team categories, while you emphasized something completely different: your priority would not be producing team results with youth categories, but producing players for the senior national team that would always be in the medal circle at major international competitions. Your proposal, as the winning combination, was recognized by the members of the KSJ expert council: NIKOLIĆ, ŽERAVICA, NOVOSEL, TANJEVIĆ, GIERGIA, VASOJEVIĆ, headed by president Dr. MILUTIN PAVLOVIĆ.” My teacher, the late Mirko Novosel, often liked to say: “What is not recorded fades with time and is quickly forgotten, as if it never existed!” As his student, on this occasion, along with the text, I will also attach photo journals!
WHO AFTER STANČIĆ?
After five years of working with youth national teams as the KSJ federal coach, and five brilliant medals, Luka Stančić retired from the national team after the match against the USSR. Soon he will also try to do with Vojvodina’s players what he did about ten years ago with the Valjevo team—build a solid and reliable first-league club.
Thus, the youth team, like their senior counterparts, will be left without a leader. There are several candidates for the infamous selector’s chair and for creating successors to the current stars.
It has long been known that Stančić’s current assistant, Janez Drvarić, otherwise coach of Slovan from Ljubljana, wants to continue working independently. Also mentioned were Rusmir Halilović, the talented expert who last season coached Budućnost from Titograd; Faruk Kulenović, coach of Vuteks, who led the cadet national team at the Balkaniada in Istanbul, announced his candidacy about ten days ago. In basketball circles, it was rumored that Žeravica’s assistant at Zvezda, Miodrag – Sija Nikolić, was also under consideration. Unexpectedly, until yesterday, Partizan head coach Dušan Ivković emerged as the frontrunner. Most prominent experts believe Ivković would be the ideal solution. He is young, has had great success with junior and senior teams, and has already coached, very successfully, the youth national team. They say there will be no hesitation at the first meeting of the KSJ Expert Council.
MEETING OF THE KSJ EXPERT COUNCIL
NIKOLIĆ AND VEJZOVIĆ DIDN’T MAKE THE CUT
The most eminent Yugoslav experts gathered yesterday in Belgrade to consider all applications regarding the competition for the new federal coach of the youth national teams. Almost all members of the KSJ Expert Council were present: president Pavlović, then Tanjević, Nikolić, Žeravica, Vasojević, Novosel, and Đerđa.
Out of six candidates, two were immediately eliminated. Šibenka coach Vojislav Vejzović and Crvena Zvezda’s Miodrag Nikolić did not meet all the competition requirements. A commission was formed: Pavlović, Tanjević, Nikolić, which will interview the remaining four candidates—Vladimir Đurović, Janez Drvarić, Rusmir Halilović, and Faruk Kulenović—and propose one of them to the KSJ Presidency, which will make the final decision.
Our well-known experts also discussed a range of issues, most of all the work in this year and preparations for all national teams.
It is still not known who will be the coach of the youth national teams
DECISION POSTPONED
The KSJ Expert Council commission did not, as expected, select the coach of the youth national teams yesterday.
All candidates—Đurović, Halilović, Kulenović, and Drvarić—are outstanding experts who possess all the qualities and conditions required by the competition, so we have not yet been able to decide. We are seeking the opinions of all SS members and must consult once again, because the decision is very delicate. Only at the end of the week will we announce which candidate we will propose to the KSJ Presidency for this important and responsible duty, said SS president Dr. Milutin Pavlović.
KSJ Presidency Session
DON’T CHANGE COMPETITION SYSTEM
This is the stance of the KSJ Presidency ahead of the Conference to be held on April 25 in Priština.
The proposal to introduce the new competition system already for the 1981–1982 season did not receive a recommendation for the next KSJ Conference, which will be held on April 25 in Priština. The reason is the decision by the Federation Presidency, made at yesterday’s session, to propose to the Conference that the current First League system with 12 clubs and the First “B” League remain in place for the next competitive season.
In addition to deciding the date and venue of the conference, the Presidency meeting also decided that the new coach of Yugoslavia’s youth national team will be Rusmir Halilović, former coach of Titograd’s Budućnost.
The Presidency members also adopted the proposal of the commission that analyzed offers from sports equipment manufacturers who will supply our national teams over the next four-year period. The most favorable offer accepted was that of “Slovenijasport–Adidas.”
At the end of his term at KSJ, three generations of players were given to the Yugoslav national teams, from which the best senior Yugoslav national team of all time was formed—the team that forced the Americans to send the greatest Dream Team of all time to the Barcelona Olympics to save face—and its architect earned the nickname ALIEN IDENTIFIER. In the four-year cycle, I introduced into the EDU system an innovative “selling ćevapi” strategy against better players and teams, as well as early player guidance to senior positions where players can deliver maximum performance at the world level (PASPALJ and KUKOČ). During that period I nullified one official game against America, changed four FIBA rules, and received the largest possible bouquet of flowers from 5,000 USA fans. At the SS KSJ meeting in Poreč, from Žeravica and Giergia I received thanks for fulfilling my professional promise before departing for the World Junior Championship: “Bravo Rusmir, you have already brought us two super players, DRAŽEN PETROVIĆ and STOJKO VRANKOVIĆ; do not take them to the championship, continue along the promised path”—and so I did, I went to the World Championship without those two! Fate willed that the two best national teams of all time never met on the Olympic court. From the Mannheim period 1981–1984 and the annulled game with the USA, and the final in Bormio where Svetislav Pešić’s selection at the 1987/88 World Junior Championship, the white aliens under the flag of ex-Yugoslavia, up to the EU championship in Rome when the selection disbanded, became the world’s penal basketball expedition! The ex-YU senior national team was always in the medal circle, as the ALIEN IDENTIFIER promised in the competition: Olympics 1984 3rd place, European Championship 1985 7th place, World Championship 1986 3rd place, European Championship 1987 3rd place, Universiade 1987 1st place (defeated USA in the final), Olympics 1988 2nd place, European Championship 1989 1st place, World Championship 1990 1st place, European Championship 1991 1st place (without Dražen Petrović and Stojko Vranković, and partially Jura Zdovc, due to politics). It is also necessary to mention the legendary senior coaches in club and national teams through whose “hands” the aliens passed: NOVOSEL, IVKOVIĆ, ĆOSIĆ, MALJKOVIĆ, PEŠIĆ, PAVLIČEVIĆ, TANJEVIĆ, TRNINIĆ, SLAVNIĆ, … without whom this unprecedented circle certainly would not have been closed—the very reason the Americans had to send the most powerful Dream Team of all time to the Barcelona Olympics. What would have happened if things had been different will forever be speculated upon, especially after the final match USA : CRO, where the geniuses from the Balkans were an equal opponent!
