FIBA Korać Cup
The Korać Cup was a European Cup competition in basketball for men's teams, which was played from 1972 to 2002. He was behind the European Champions Cup and the European Cup Winners' Cup the third most important European Cup.
He owed the name of the Yugoslav basketball player Radivoje Korać. Nowadays, the Serbian Association Cup will be held under that name.
History
The Korać Cup was first held in 1972 by FIBA Europe. After the national champion trophy, which was played in 1957 for the first time, and the Cup Winners' Cup, which celebrated premiere in 1966, it was the third European competition for club teams in the men.
The idea of the FIBA was to introduce a European Cup, where teams can also participate who could not qualify for the European Champions Cup, and the European Cup Winners' Cup itself. With the decision to call this competition Korać Cup, the FIBA honored the Yugoslav basketball player Radivoj Korać, who came in 1969 at the age of 30 in a car accident.
The competition quickly established itself as the third major European competitions and was dominated in the first years of the Yugoslav or Italian team before in the 80 years of French and Spanish sides dominated the tournament. In the 90 years were two Greek and one Turkish club win the cup. With ALBA Berlin made it in the 1994/95 season a German club to win the Korać Cup, what the first European Cup victory of a German team represented at all.
The last edition of the Korać Cup took place in the 2001/ 02 season. The ULEB launched two new European competitions, whereupon the FIBA stopped the Korać Cup and the EuroCup Challenge established a new European Cup. Since then, the Serbian Basketball Federation carries out its national club trophy as Radivoj Korać Cup. FIBA Europe and the Serbian Association decided in 2011 also that the former winner's trophy is given to the winner of the Serbian Cup competition from 2012.
The trophy has been played a total of 31 times and was won by 19 different clubs. With 10 titles Italy is the most successful country of Korać Cup. It presents with Pallacanestro Cantu also the record holder (4 items).
Importance
The competition was particularly popular with clubs from the south-eastern part of Europe, since the density of good basketball teams, but could not qualify for the other two tournaments themselves, there was very high.
As the top teams of the respective European basketball leagues playing in the National Champion Cup or the Cup Winners' Cup, the sporting quality was worse than in the other two competitions. Therefore, the Korać Cup was since its inception and up to adjustment in 2002, the third most important European Cup in basketball. In the 2000 /01 season he was even only the fourth most important, since FIBA and ULEB this season, each playing off its own national champion trophy.