# Croatia men's national basketball team

The Croatia men's national basketball team (Croatian: Hrvatska košarkaška reprezentacija) represents Croatia in international basketball matches. The team is controlled by the Croatian Basketball Federation (HKS).
The biggest success Croatia has achieved was at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics when the team reached the final against the United States and won the silver medal. Croatia has also won one bronze medal at the FIBA World Cup and two bronze medals at EuroBasket.
Croatia's Krešimir Ćosić, Dražen Petrović, Dino Rađa, Mirko Novosel and Toni Kukoč are members of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Ćosić was inducted in 1996, Petrović in 2002, Rađa in 2018 and Kukoč in 2021, all as players. Novosel was inducted in 2007 as a coach. Petrović, Ćosić, Kukoč and Novosel are members of the FIBA Hall of Fame. Ćosić is also the only Croatian to have received the FIBA Order of Merit. Ćosić, however, never played for the Croatia national team. As he was only a member of the Yugoslavia national team, holding the record for number of medals (including Olyimpic gold) and the most games played by a player.

## History
### Prior to Croatian independence

Croatia played its first unofficial friendly game on 2 June 1964 in Karlovac. Croatian team played against US All Star Team and lost 65–110 (31–50). USA players coached by Red Auerbach were Bob Cousy, Tom Heinsohn, K. C. Jones, Jerry Lucas, Bob Pettit, Oscar Robertson and Bill Russell and Croatian team was Giuseppe Gjergja, Nemanja Đurić, Živko Kasun, Zlatko Kiseljak, Slobodan Kolaković, Dragan Kovačić, Boris Križan, Stjepan Ledić, Mirko Novosel, Marko Ostarčević, Petar Skansi and Željko Troskot.

### Independent Croatia

After independence of Croatia in 1991, the first official tournament played by Croatians were the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona. Croatia defeated the CIS team 75–74 and reached the final against the USA Dream Team led by Michael Jordan. The USA won 85–117, but Croatia won its first medal at a major tournament in history.
The next competition for Croatia was the 1993 EuroBasket in Germany. Tragically, before the tournament Dražen Petrović died in a car accident on 7 June 1993 at the age of 28. Croatia still managed to reach the bronze medal game to defeat Greece 99–59.
Croatia earned its third medal at the 1994 FIBA World Cup in Canada. Croatia lost their semi-finals match against Russia 64–66, but beat Greece once again 78–60 for the bronze medal. A similar occurrence happened at the EuroBasket 1995 in Greece. Croatia lost in the semi-finals 80–90 against Lithuania, but beat Greece 73–68 for the third time in a row in a bronze medal match. That medal to date was the last Croatian medal from any major tournament. At the 1996 Summer Olympics Croatia finished in a subpar seventh place.

### Decline

At the EuroBasket 1997 in Spain, the new Croatian generation emerged, but ended in 11th place. Croatia failed to qualify for the 2000, 2004 and 2012 Summer Olympics, but finished sixth in 2008. Croatia also failed to qualify for the 1998, 2002 and 2006 World Cups. Although the team did manage to qualify in 2010, before falling in the Round of 16. However, at the EuroBasket 2013, Croatia had its best tournament appearance since 1995, where the team finished in fourth place.

## Honours

The Croatia national team's all-time medal table:
| Games | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
| Summer Olympics | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| FIBA World Cup | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| EuroBasket | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Mediterranean Games | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Stanković Cup | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| Total | 3 | 3 | 3 | 9 |

## Results and fixtures

Win  Loss

### 2025
## Team
### Current roster

Roster for the EuroBasket 2025 Qualifiers matches on 21 and 24 February 2025 against France and Cyprus.

### Depth chart

| Pos. | Starting 5 | Bench 1 | Bench 2 |
| C | Luka Šamanić | Krešimir Ljubičić | |
| PF | Mario Hezonja | Marin Marić | |
| SF | Mateo Drežnjak | Dario Drežnjak | Antonio Sikirić |
| SG | Jaleen Smith | Toni Perković | Antonio Jordano |
| PG | Dominik Mavra | Borna Kapusta | Krešimir Radovčić |

## Head coaches

| Years | Name | Competition |
| 1992 | Petar Skansi | 1992 Summer Olympics |
| 1993 | Mirko Novosel | 1993 EuroBasket |
| 1994 | Josip Gjergja | 1994 World Cup |
| 1995 | Aleksandar Petrović | 1995 EuroBasket |
| 1996–1998 | Petar Skansi | 7th 1996 Summer Olympics 11th 1997 EuroBasket |
| 1999 | Boško Božić | 9th 1999 EuroBasket |
| 1999–2001 | Aleksandar Petrović | 7th 2001 EuroBasket |
| 2001–2005 | Neven Spahija | 11th 2003 EuroBasket 7th 2005 EuroBasket |
| 2005–2009 | Jasmin Repeša | 6th 2007 EuroBasket 6th 2008 Summer Olympics 6th 2009 EuroBasket |
| Years | Name | Competition |
| 2010–2011 | Josip-Jerko Vranković | 14th 2010 World Cup 13th 2011 EuroBasket |
| 2012–2014 | Jasmin Repeša | 4th 2013 EuroBasket 10th 2014 World Cup |
| 2015 | Velimir Perasović | 9th 2015 EuroBasket |
| 2016–2017 | Aleksandar Petrović | 5th 2016 Summer Olympics 10th 2017 EuroBasket |
| 2017–2018 | Ivica Skelin | — |
| 2018–2019 | Dražen Anzulović | — |
| 2019–2022 | Veljko Mršić | — |
| 2022 | Damir Mulaomerović | 12th 2022 EuroBasket |
| 2022–2023 | Aleksandar Petrović (interim) | — |
| 2023–present | Josip Sesar | — |

## Head-to-head record
### Biggest tournament wins

20+ point difference
| Olympic Games | World Cup | EuroBasket |
| +34 vs. Iran (91–57) 2008 +33 vs. Australia (98–65) 1992 +31 vs. China (109–78) 1996 +23 vs. Angola (71–48) 1996 +21 vs. Germany (99–78) 1992 | +51 vs. South Korea (104–53) 1994 +32 vs. China (105–73) 1994 +31 vs. Canada (92–61) 1994 +26 vs. Greece (81–55) 1994 +21 vs. Iran (75–54) 2010 +20 vs. Cuba (85–65) 1994 +20 vs. Tunisia (84–64) 2010 | +50 vs. Turkey (113–63) 1993 +40 vs. Greece (99–59) 1993 +38 vs. Czech Republic (107–69) 2017 +32 vs. Belgium (106–74) 1993 +25 vs. Finland (88–63) 2013 +22 vs. Turkey (90–68) 1995 +22 vs. Czech Republic (86–64) 1999 +22 vs. Ukraine (93–71) 2003 +22 vs. Portugal (90–68) 2007 +21 vs. Bulgaria (104–83) 1993 +21 vs. Great Britain (86–65) 2022 +20 vs. Bosnia and Herzegovina (98–78) 1993 +20 vs. Germany (75–55) 1997 |
* Croatia also defeated Albania (94–70) for a win margin of +24 at the 2009 Mediterranean Games.

### Biggest tournament losses

-20> point difference
| Olympic Games | World Cup | EuroBasket |
| -33 vs. USA (70–103) 1992 -32 vs. USA (85–117) 1992 -31 vs. USA (71–102) 1996 -24 vs. Argentina (53–77) 2008 | -28 vs. USA (78–106) 2010 | -28 vs. Spain (40–68) 2013 -26 vs. Spain (66–92) 2013 -21 vs. Czech Republic (59–80) 2015 |

### Biggest qualification wins

20+ point difference
| Olympic qualification | World Cup qualification | EuroBasket qualification |
| +73 vs. Iceland (124–51) 1992 +52 vs. Portugal (109–57) 1992 +46 vs. Italy (108–62) 1992 +39 vs. Greece (102–63) 1992 +32 vs. Sweden (99–67) 2024 +31 vs. Belgium (86–55) 2024 +23 vs. Slovenia (93–70) 1992 +20 vs. Tunisia (72–52) 2016 | +27 vs. Romania (90–63) 2018 | +60 vs. Romania (115–55) 1997 +56 vs. Macedonia (128–72) 1993 +40 vs. Belarus (112–72) 1993 +40 vs. Ireland (89–49) 2025 +37 vs. Cyprus (104–67) 2025 +36 vs. Luxembourg (98–62) 2025 +34 vs. Latvia (113–79) 1993 +34 vs. Ireland (95–61) 2025 +33 vs. Romania (119–86) 1993 +31 vs. Switzerland (84–53) 2025 +29 vs. Ukraine (107–78) 1993 +29 vs. Cyprus (92–63) 2025 +25 vs. Austria (100–75) 2025 |