Boris Kristančič
Boris Kristančič (January 2, 1932 – October 29, 2015) was a Slovenian basketball player and coach. In 2001, he received the Order of Freedom of the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: Častni znak svobode RS).[1]
His career
Kristančič was born in Skopje, which was then in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. He spent most of his career in Olimpija Ljubljana in some cases both simultaneously as a player and as a coach. With his extensively assistance, the "Zmaji" celebrated the five of the six championship titles that they won in the framework of the Basketball League of the United Yugoslavia. For the Yugoslav national basketball team has performed hundreds of times from 1954 to 1960, also he was the captain of the team for six years. In particular with national team, he participated in the 1954 FIBA World Championship (11th) in Brazil, in two European Championships (1957 6th & 1959 9th) and in the 1960 Summer Olympics basketball tournament in Rome, Italy, where the nascent "Plavi" ranked sixth in total 16 teams. Kristančič was the first Slovene basketball player who played for a foreign club.[2] In 2001, he Kristančič was awarded the Order of Freedom of the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: Častni znak svobode RS) with the justification "the life jubilee of fifty years working in the field of Slovenian sport, especially for merits in the development of basketball".[1]
Career achievements
Club competitions
*He won these titles as coach/player of Olimpija.
also
- FIBA European Champions Cup - semifinalist (with Olimpija: 1961-62) and quarterfinalist (with Olimpija: 1959-60, 1962-63)