Every memory of the date of birth is somehow experienced with a smile on the face. Every memory of the day of death evokes sadness. Every memory of Mirza Delibašić connects both, but mostly expresses pride since B&H had – a giant.
Mirza Delibašić was born on January 9, 1954 in Tuzla. The first sport he was engaged in was tennis. He succeeded in that sport as well, but the destiny brought him another sport, with two baskets and a much bigger ball than the one used for tennis.
He attracted the legendary Bogdan Tanjević and officials of the Basketball Club Bosna with great performances in the BC Sloboda, so the popular Boša tried to persuade Mirza to come to Sarajevo, which eventually happened. As the saying goes, the rest is history, written in golden letters with the most beautiful writing pen.
Period of the best B&H basketball player is marked with around 700 matches, approximately 14,000 scores and lots of sweat. When it comes to Mirza, Tanović said he also made others around him better, and that is the ability of only the greatest ones. Winning the title of the champion in 1979 in the jersey of BC Bosna looks unreal from this perspective. Kidđe left a significant trace in Real Madrid as well, the current champion of Europe and the “club for all times”, where his name and his shirt are still among the legends, alongside Dejan Bodiroga, Dražen Petrović and Arvyday Sabonis.
In the shirt of Yugoslavia, he won world and European championships, and especially significant is the Olympic medal from 1980 in Moscow. Mirza was also the first coach of the basketball national team of B&H when, on the Eurobasket in 1993 to which the B&H players departed barely staying alive, B&H played in quarter-finals. Surprisingly, that remained to be the greatest success of the B&H senior basketball to this day.
Kinđe died on December 8, 2001. He is a symbol of times which bring nostalgia to many people of older generations, and which sound unreal to the younger ones. However, there is still hope for giants and great successes.
(Source: klix.ba)
