Jiří Zídek Sr.

Jiří Zídek
Player information
birthday	February 8, 1944
place of birth	Prague, Bohemia and Moravia
size	206 cm
position	center
Clubs as active
00000000 Slavia Prague Dukla Olomouc Forssan Alku 00000000 00000000
National team
1963-1974	Czechoslovakia	257

Jiří Zídek Sr. medal table
Basketball (men)
Czechoslovakia
European Championship
silver	1967 Finland
bronze	1969 Campania

Jiří Zídek Sr. (born February 8, 1944 in Prague , Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia ) is a former Czechoslovak basketball player . Zídek was considered one of the most important European basketball players in the second half of the 1960s and was nominated in 2008, alongside referee Lubomir Kotleba, as the only Czech and Slovak for the EuroLeague's 50 Greatest Contributors . While he once reached the final of the 1966 FIBA European Cup with his club team Slavia Prague , he won the European Cup Winners' Cup with Slavia1969. With the Czechoslovak national team he won a silver and a bronze medal at the European basketball championships and was a participant in the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich. His son Jiří Zídek Jr. was also a successful basketball player, was active in the highest endowed professional league NBA and, unlike his father, was able to win the most important European club competition FIBA ​​Europaliga in 1999.

Career

Association with Slavia Prague

Zídek won with Slavia Prague in 1965 and 1966 their first two national championships and was able to break through the phalanx of Spartak Brno, which had won the three titles before. When they first participated in the European Cup, Slavia moved two years after Spartak Brno into the final of the competition, in which, however, in 1966 Simmenthal Milan was defeated by five points. Zídek was the “ top scorer ” of his team at 72:77 with 20 individual points . Slavia defended the national championship that year and retired from the European Cup in 1966/67 in the semifinals against defending champion Simmenthal Milan from the title. At the Final Four tournament they secured third place in the “small final” against AŠK Olimpija Ljubljana . After losing the national championship again to Spartak Brno, they entered the following season 1967/68 in the European Cup Winners' Cup, newly created a year earlier , and reached the final there in Athens . Against hosts AEK Athens , who had been defeated in the semi-finals in the national championship competition two years earlier, they lost the final before the audience record of at least 80,000 spectators, which is still valid for European club competitions, despite 31 points from Zídek with 82:89.

After Spartak Brno was able to defend its national title in 1968, Slavia entered the second European competition again and this time was the first and so far only Czech and Slovak men's team to win a European Cup. In the final of the cup winners' competition in 1968/69 they won in Vienna against BK Dinamo Tiflis with 80:74. In addition, they got back the national championship title from Spartak Brno and could also win the following three championships and in 1974 the seventh championship for the club. In the national championship competition in 1970 and 1971 Slavia Prague failed twice in a row in the semifinals against the Soviet representative CSKA Moscow . In the FIBA European Cup of National Champions in 1971/72 they did not reach the semi-finals of the best four teams for the first time since participating in European competitions when they failed in the group stage against Jugoplastika Split and Panathinaikos Athens . The following year you lost all three direct comparisons in your group in the group stage of the eight best teams . After losing the title to Dukla Olmütz in the national championship in 1973 , they were not represented in European competitions in the 1973/74 season. The national title could be won back in 1974. In the national championship competition 1974/75 they had no chance in the group stage of the top twelve teams and did not win a single direct comparison in their group, including the one against the Austrian representative UBSC Vienna . Then there were no more title wins for Slavia Prague and Zídek at national or international level. Later, Zídek played one more season in Olomouc and, at a higher age for athletes, as a player-coach two seasons with Alku from Forssa in Finland .

National team

After Zídek with the Czechoslovak national team at the EM finals in 1963 and 1965 did not come close to medals, they won the silver medal at the EM finals in 1967 . In the preliminary round they only had to admit defeat to hosts Finland once in seven games . After beating Bulgaria in the semi-finals , they lost the final 77:89 against defending champion Soviet Union , who had also won the five previous events. At the next European Championship finals two years later, they won all the preliminary round matches, but met the defending champions and later European champions, the Soviet Union, in the semi-finals. After the 69:83 defeat, after winning the “small final” with two points difference over Poland , it was enough to win the bronze medal. After the pre-Olympic qualification tournament in Europe in 1968 after defeats against Poland and Bulgaria had missed the qualification for the Olympic basketball tournament, Zídek was represented with the national team at the basketball world championship in 1970 for the first time in a global final. In the final round of the best seven teams, there were only two victories over runner-up world champions Brazil and the winless Uruguayan selection , which brought them to sixth place. At the following European Championship finals in 1971 in Germany , they missed the medal round and managed to secure fifth place.

In the 1972 Olympic qualification, she successfully participated in the Olympic basketball tournament in Munich. In the competition itself you reached fourth place in the group stage at the 1972 Olympic Games . After a defeat against the reigning world champions Yugoslavia and Brazil in the placement round, they reached eighth place in Zídek's only Olympic participation. At the European Championship finals in 1973 in Catalonia they came back to the medal round after only one preliminary round defeat against defending champion Soviet Union. After losing to world champion Yugoslavia in the semifinals, they also lost the small final again against the Soviet Union, which failed in the semifinals on the hosts. At the 1974 World Cup , the final round of the eight best teams was missed. In the placement round they lost to Mexico at the beginning . Despite the following four victories, it was only enough for tenth place in this final round. Subsequently, Zídek did not take part in any finals.

Others

30 years after winning the European Cup Winners' Cup, Zídek's son of the same name, wearing the jersey of the Lithuanian club Žalgiris Kaunas, won the FIBA ​​Europaliga in 1998/99, the highest European club competition at the time. The Zídeks are the only known father-son couple who have each won a European Cup.

Web links

• archive.fiba.com: Players - Jiri ZIDEK (TCH) - Overview of participation in FIBA tournaments ( English )
• Jiří Zídek in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Vladimir Stanković: Jiri Zidek - A Czech legend. ULEB , June 9, 2012, accessed September 7, 2013 .  
2. ↑ Player Nominees: Zidek. ULEB , archived from the original on January 2, 2015 ; accessed on September 7, 2013 (English, nomination proposal). 
3. ↑ Champions Cup 1965–1966. Linguasport.com, accessed on September 7, 2013 (English / Spanish, competition overview with final match report). 
4. ^ Cup Winners' Cup 1967–1968. Linguasport.com, accessed on September 7, 2013 (English / Spanish, competition overview with final match report). 
5. ^ Cup Winners' Cup 1968–1969. Linguasport.com, accessed on September 7, 2013 (English / Spanish, competition overview with final match report). 
6. ↑ Champions Cup 1974–1975. Linguasport.com, accessed on September 7, 2013 (English / Spanish, competition overview).