Petar Skansi

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Petar Skansi
PAOK
2003Split CO
2003–2004Krka
Career highlights and awards
As player

As head coach

Medals
Men's basketball
Representing  Yugoslavia
Olympic Games
Silver medal – second place 1968 Mexico City
FIBA World Cup
Silver medal – second place 1967 Uruguay
Gold medal – first place 1970 Yugoslavia
EuroBasket
Silver medal – second place 1965 Soviet Union
Mediterranean Games
Gold medal – first place 1967 Tunis
Head coach for  Yugoslavia
EuroBasket
Bronze medal – third place 1979 Italy
Head coach for  Croatia
Olympic Games
Silver medal – second place 1992 Barcelona

Petar Skansi (23 November 1943 – 4 April 2022)

Yugoslavia national team that silver medalled at the 1968 Summer Olympics
.

For his basketball achievements, he was awarded the Franjo Bučar State Award for Sport twice, in 1992 and 2003. He also had a political stint as a deputy minister of sports in Croatia.

Early life

Born in the Sumartin village, on the island of Brač, to Navy Captain Petar and teacher mother Marija, Skansi graduated from the Split streamlined maritime high school in 1961. Simultaneously, he took up water polo, playing it in the Jadran Split youth system.[2][3]

Playing career

Club playing career

Skansi first played

Yugoslav League club Jugoplastika, where he played from 1964 to 1972. He then played with the Italian league club Maxmobili Pesaro
, from 1972 to 1973. After that, he returned to Jugoplastika, where he remained until he retired from playing basketball, in 1976.

He was a member of the

1972
.

National team playing career

Skansi was also a member of the

1965 EuroBasket, the silver medal at the 1967 FIBA World Championship, the silver medal at the 1968 Mexico City Summer Olympics, and the gold medal at the 1970 FIBA World Championship. He also won the gold medal at the 1967 Mediterranean Games
.

After Yugoslavia won the gold medal at the 1970 FIBA World Championship, Skansi was named the

FIBA's 50 Greatest Players
list, in 1991.

Club coaching career

Jugoplastika

Skansi became coach-player at

Jugoplastika in the season 1973–74 and he remained in that status until his retirement from playing basketball in 1976. Then he continued his career in basketball only as head coach. In his first season as coach-player, Skansi led Jugoplastika in the semifinals of 1973–74 FIBA Korać Cup where his team was eliminated hardly by Partizan (97–108 loss in Belgrade and 85–75 win in Split). Also in the same season they won the Yugoslav Basketball Cup (92–85 against Crvena zvezda) and Jugoplastika ranked second in the First Federal Basketball League
.

In 1974–75 season, still as coach-player of Jugoplastika, he led his team in the semifinals of 1974–75 FIBA European Cup Winners' Cup where his team was eliminated by the defending champions Crvena zvezda (88–76 win in Split and 63–81 loss in Belgrade). In the domestic competitions Jugoplastika reached the final of Yugoslav Basketball Cup but lost to Crvena zvezda and in the First Federal Basketball League once again ranked second behind the champion Zadar.

In 1975–76 season his last as player alongside coach, Skansi won his first European trophy the

Chinamartini Torino
. In the domestic league he led Jugoplastika in the second place.

The next year (1976–77) Skansi retired as player and continued his career in the city of

Alco Bologna), the Yugoslav Cup (against Kvarner
) and the First Federal Basketball League.

In 1977–78 season Petar Skansi led Jugoplastika as Yugoslav champion in the Semifinals group stage of FIBA European Champions Cup where they ranked 5th with a 5 wins–5 losses record. In the end of the season he left the club.

Scavolini

In summer 1981, having spent the previous four years coaching in various capacities within the

forward
Giuseppe Ponzoni.

Skansi's 1981 head coaching appointment at Scavolini, by his own admission, owed a lot to fellow Yugoslav Aleksandar Nikolić's coaching success in Italy throughout the 1970s that opened doors in Italian league to other Yugoslav coaches such as Skansi and Bogdan Tanjević.[4]

1981–82: runners-up in Italy

Playing in a fourteen-club

Billy Milano
, losing the home court advantage right away by dropping the opening game 86–89 on their home court; Olimpia won game two in Milan, 73–72, to take the title.

1982–83: winning Saporta Cup, falling short in Italian League again

Ahead of the 1982–83 season, on Skansi's insistence,

Jugoplastika. With a formidable looking starting five of Kićanović, Sylvester, Ponzoni, Magnifico, and Jerkov
, as well as the previous season's experience, the goal of winning the league was now even more of an objective than the year before.

The Italian league expanded to 16 teams and Scavolini finished the regular season with a 21–9 record, placing third on the table.

They simultaneously competed in the 1982–83 FIBA European Cup Winners' Cup, winning it in March 1983 in Palma de Mallorca versus ASVEL.

The league playoffs began versus the sixth seed

Billy Milano, which had the home court advantage this time due to placing higher in the regular season than Scavolini. Billy won its opening home game by a big margin, before Scavolini responded with a large win of their own in Pesaro. The deciding game in Milan
was never in doubt, as Olimpia routed Scavolini by a 14-point margin – a major disappointment for the Pesaro team.

As a direct consequence of falling to win the Italian league, both big name foreign signings, Kićanović and Jerkov, were not retained, while head coach Skansi initially survived, but he then got fired only one game into the 1983–84 league season.

Benetton

Skansi's best achievement in his Italian era was the winning of 1991–92

Benetton Treviso. The next season Benetton under his coaching, reached the 1993 FIBA European League Final Four that took place in Peace and Friendship Stadium, Athens and unexpectedly lost to Limoges
by 55–59 score.

National team coaching

Assistant at Yugoslavia national team

In 1977, after coaching

EuroBasket 1977. With its famous five of Slavnić, Kićanović, Delibašić, Dalipagić, and Ćosić
, Yugoslavia won gold in dominant fashion.

Next summer, Skansi continued in his assistant

coach role under Nikolić for the 1978 FIBA World Championship
as Yugoslavia won gold again with the same team – its second world title in eight years.

Yugoslavia head coach

Right after winning the 1978 world title, Nikolić stepped down and his assistant Skansi got the

Czechoslovakia
, which provided a bit of a reprieve though the tournament overall was still seen as a disappointment after years of winning, including three consecutive EuroBasket titles.

Croatia

After

Croatian national basketball team head coach, and with them he won the silver medal at the 1992 Summer Olympic Games
.

Political career

From January 2012, until June 2014, Skansi was Deputy

centre-left government of Zoran Milanović
.

Personal life

Skansi was married to Damira, with whom he had a daughter, Jana and a son, Luka.[5] From 1984, Skansi's primary residence was in Slovenia, where he started a real estate maintenance business.[2]

Honours as player

National

KK Split

International

Yugoslavia

References

  1. Gol.hr
    (in Croatian). Retrieved 4 April 2022.
  2. ^ a b "Petar Skansi: biografija". Večernji list. Archived from the original on 3 December 2013. Retrieved 4 April 2022.
  3. ^ "Petar Skansi: biografija". Večernji list. 1 December 2016. Retrieved 4 April 2022.
  4. ^ Avdić, Edin (27 January 2015). "U obruču: Petar Skansi". Arena Sport. Retrieved 1 February 2015.
  5. ^ Grbelja, J. (December 1971). "Djevojke misle da je ženama sportaša lako". Start. Retrieved 2 February 2015.

External links

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