Zeljko Rebraca, a member of the Yugoslav basketball team, the player of the Panathinaikos during this season, aroused the audience in Thessaloniki, and the TV audience as well, by winning the game practically alone against the domestic team coached by Dragan Sakota, in the 11th round of the Greek championship.
The final score 62:80 speaks for itself about the balance of power, favoring the Athens' greens, thanks to NBA play of Rebraca.
Rebraca was tonight unresolved enigma for the players of Iraklis, thanks to his firm defence and great number of rebounds as well as in the attack with 28 scores (13/10 two points, 1/1 three points, 5/5 free throws).
Dejan Bodiroga (14 points, four rebounds and three assists) and young Focis (16 points), the big hope of the Greek basketball, who "exploded" since Zeljko Obradovic took over the Athens' club.
Thanks to that triumph, Panathinaikos remained on the top, in front of Olimpiakos, AEK and PAOK.
Gabriela Szabo, the Romanian athlete, is the best athlete of the Balkan region in 1999, according to the Bulgarian national agency, the BTA, and Yugoslav basketball player Dejan Bodiroga and football player Sinisa Mihajlovic among the top ten.
In the traditional BTA poll, in which sport sections of the Balkan region's national press agencies take part, Bodiroga came up fifth and Mihajlovic eighth along with Turkish wrestler Harun Dogan.
British sports reporters selected Yugoslav football player Sinisa Mihajlovic as one of the eleven top football players in the recently finished qualification tournament for participation in the European competition in Belgium and Holland in 2000.
Here is the "ideal team" according to the British press:
Peter Schmeichel (Denmark), Lillian Thuram (France), Paolo Maldini (Italy), Marcel Desailly (France), Sinisa Mihajlovic (YUGOSLAVIA), David Beckham, Manuel Rui Costa (Portugal), Zinedine Zidane (France), Pavel Nedved (Czech Republic), Raul Gonsales (Spain), Oliver Bierhoff (Germany).
