Croatian basketball legend Petar Skansi dies at 78 / News - Basketnews.com

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Croatian basketball player and coach Petar Skansi died on Monday, April 4, at the age of 78.

Skansi was 2.06 m. and played at the center position. From January 2012 until June 2014, he had taken on the role of the Deputy Minister of Science, Education and Sports to Zeljko Jovanovic, in the centre-left government of Zoran Milanovic.

He is mostly remembered as the coach of the Croatian national team, which won the silver medal at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona.

He was also a member of the Yugoslavian national team that won the World Cup in Ljubljana in 1970. Apart from Skansi, that team featured several Croatian players, like the legendary Cresimir Cosic, Ratomir Tvrdic, Damir Solman and Nikola Plecas. With the Yugoslavian national team, Skansi also won the silver medal at the 1968 Olympic Games and at the 1965 FIBA EuroBasket.

He coached Yugoslav National Team at the 1979 FIBA EuroBasket in which his team won the bronze medal.

He was born in 1943 in Sumartin and started playing basketball in Jugoplastika. He remained there until 1972. After that, he went to Pesaro and returned to his home country the following season. He remained there for three years as a player-coach.

In 1977, he led the team toward the triple-crown as that year Split won the Yugoslav National Championship, Yugoslav National Cup and FIBA Korac Cup.

After 1978, Skansi went to work abroad.

In the late 70s, his coaching career kicked off, including Italian clubs Scavolini Pesaro, Venezia, Roma, Benetton Treviso, with whom he played in the 1993 Euroleague final in Piraeus against Limoges, and Fortitudo Bologna. He also coached PAOK in Greece, Split and Krka.

He returned to Split in 2003 only to lead the team to the Croatian National Championship. That still remains the last national title that this team has won.

In 1991, FIBA selected him among the 50 greatest basketball players of all time.

Skansi is survived by his wife, Damira, and his daughter, Jana. Since 1984, his primary residence had been in Slovenia, where he started a real estate maintenance business.

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