- Borislav Stanković
Borislav "Bora" Stanković (Serbian
Cyrillic : "Борислав Станковић"; bornJuly 9 ,1925 ) is aSerbia n formerbasketball player and coach, as well as a longtime administrator in the sport's various governing bodies. For his contributions to the game of basketball he was inducted into theBasketball Hall of Fame in 1991.Stanković was born in
Bihać ,Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes . Early in his life he moved toNovi Sad and then toSyrmia n town ofLedinci duringWorld War II . After the war, Stanković went toBelgrade where he graduated from theUniversity of Belgrade with a degree inveterinary medicine .Simultaneous to his studies Stanković played professionally for Red Star Belgrade and was on the Yugoslav national team for five years in early 1950s. After he retired from the game, he coached
OKK Beograd for ten consecutive seasons (1953-1963) and for a season in 1965. He then moved on to Italian clubPallacanestro Cantù , spending three seasons as its head coach (1966-1969).Throughout his lengthy involvement with
basketball , Stanković has served or been a part of the following organizations: Yugoslav Olympic Committee,International Olympic Committee , Board of Trustees at theBasketball Hall of Fame and he's best remembered for his tenure asFIBA 's Secretary General of from 1976 to 2002.Many observers feel it was Borislav Stanković who encouraged foreign basketball players to apply their trade in the
NBA . Other than Serbian, he fluently speaks six other languages and was inducted into theBasketball Hall of Fame in 1991 as a contributor. In 2007, he was enshrined as a contributor in theFIBA Hall of Fame .FIBA has named the annual international basketball cup after him, "
Stanković Cup ".External links
* [http://www.halloffame.fiba.com/pages/eng/hof/indu/contr/2007/p/lid_17894_newsid/20012/bio.html FIBA Hall of Fame page on Stankovic]
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