Yugoslav national basketball team from 1950

Last place on first World Championship

The basketball team of Yugoslavia arrived in 1950 to Buenos Aires to the First World Basketball Championship instead of Italy, which cancelled its participation. Without long and serious preparations, without coach and with a team gathered in a short time, Yugoslavia was already condemned to be the last. In the first match, the "blue" team was defeated by Peru, and Nebojsa Popovic, the captain and the coach of the team, scored the first, historical shot for Yugoslavia.

After defeat from Chile, once again from Peru, Ecuador, Spain, the Yugoslav team won the last, 12th place.

Only 20 years later, on the World Championship in Ljubljana, the Yugoslav basketball players superiorly won the golden medal. The Yugoslavs, who learned basketball in Argentina, gave a lesson of modern and attractive basketball to their former teachers. That's why the participation in the first World Championship was huge experience, but first of all, it was stimulus for development of basketball in Yugoslavia.

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