Željko Rebrača

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Željko Rebrača
Жељко Ребрача 2020.png
Željko Rebrača in 2020
Personal information
Born (1972-04-09) April 9, 1972 (age 49)
Apatin, SR Serbia, SFR Yugoslavia
NationalitySerbian
Listed height2.13 m (7 ft 0 in)
Listed weight120 kg (265 lb)
Career information
NBA draft1994 / Round: 2 / Pick: 54th overall
Selected by the Seattle SuperSonics
Playing career1990–2007
PositionCenter
Number9, 39, 12, 11
Career history
1990–1991NAP Novi Sad
1991–1995Partizan
1995–1999Benetton Treviso
1999–2001Panathinaikos
20012004Detroit Pistons
2004Atlanta Hawks
20042007Los Angeles Clippers
2007Pamesa Valencia
Career highlights and awards
Career NBA statistics
Points1,276 (5.9 ppg)
Rebounds688 (3.2 rpg)
FG%.527
Stats Edit this at Wikidata at NBA.com
Stats at Basketball-Reference.com
Medals
Men's Basketball
Representing Federal Republic of Yugoslavia FR Yugoslavia
Olympic Games
Silver medal – second place 1996 Atlanta
FIBA World Cup
Gold medal – first place 1998 Athens
EuroBasket
Gold medal – first place 1995 Greece
Gold medal – first place 1997 Spain

Željko Rebrača (Serbian Cyrillic: Жељко Ребрача; born April 9, 1972) is a Serbian retired professional basketball player. After playing in the National Basketball Association (NBA), he finished his career with the Spanish ACB League team Pamesa Valencia.

Professional career[]

Europe[]

Rebrača began his professional career in 1991, with KK Partizan. With KK Partizan, he won 2 Yugo League championships (1992 and 1995), 3 Yugoslav Cups (1992, 1994, and 1995), and the EuroLeague (1992).

In 1995–99, he played in the Italian League for Benetton Treviso, where he won the Italian League championship in 1997, under coach Mike D'Antoni. He followed up that by winning the Italian Supercup in 1997, and the FIBA Saporta Cup in 1999, while playing under coach Željko Obradović.

He also played for the European basketball giant Panathinaikos, during the 1999–00 and 2000–01 seasons, winning with them 2 Greek League championships and 1 EuroLeague championship, at the EuroLeague Final Four in 2000, which was hosted in Thessaloniki. He was awarded with the EuroLeague Final Four MVP.

NBA[]

Rebrača, a 7'0" center, was a second round (54th overall) draft pick of the Seattle SuperSonics in the 1994 NBA draft. The Sonics immediately traded his NBA rights to the Minnesota Timberwolves, who then traded his rights to the Toronto Raptors in 1999, who in turn, traded his rights to the Detroit Pistons in 2001.

In the NBA, he played for the Detroit Pistons (2001–04), the Atlanta Hawks (2004), and the Los Angeles Clippers (2004–06). His most productive season was his rookie year, in which he averaged 6.9 points and 3.9 rebounds per game, as a member of the Detroit Pistons. His career NBA averages were 5.9 points per game and 3.2 rebounds per game, in 15.3 minutes per game.

Rebrača was plagued with heart problems. Those problems caused him to miss many games in his NBA career, including most of the first half of the 2005–06 NBA season. Rebrača had NBA career highs of 24 points (scored on April 10, 2002), and 16 rebounds (set on January 29, 2005).

Return to Europe[]

On April 6, 2007, after being on the injured list through the 2006–07 NBA season, Rebrača was waived by the Clippers,[1] and on June 19, 2007, he signed with Pamesa Valencia, in the Spanish basketball league (ACB).[2] On December 17, 2007, Rebraca announced his retirement from playing the game of basketball.[3][4]

National team career[]

Rebrača was a member of the senior men's FR Yugoslavian national team (for which he became one of the Serbian MVPs). He won the gold medal with his national team at both EuroBaskets 1995 and 1997. With FR Yugoslavia, he also won the silver medal at the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics, in the United States.

1998 FIBA World Championship[]

Rebrača won the gold medal at the 1998 FIBA World Championship as one of the key players of the depleted Yugoslavia roster that missed most of its ageing stars of the era such as Vlade Divac, Predrag Danilović or Žarko Paspalj, while team captain and 1997 European Championship MVP Aleksandar Đorđević played only limited minutes due to a recent injury.

Rebrača was instrumental in winning the closely fought final game against Russia with a block on Mikhail Mikhailov's dunk attempt, followed by a basket after an offensive rebound and finally, two free throws (despite his subpar 55% foul shooting in previous 8 games in the tournament[5]), all in the final 35 seconds of the game.[6]

Rebrača went on to make the all-tournament team averaging 13.6 points and 9.1 rebounds. With him anchoring the team's defense throughout the tournament (7 blocks against Greece in a second round game[7]), clutch performances in the semi-finals against Greece (20 points and 13 rebounds) and the finals against Russia (16 points and 11 rebounds along with his late game heroics), some argued that Rebrača should have been awarded the MVP honors that went to his teammate Dejan Bodiroga instead.[8][9]

Personal life[]

Rebrača was one of the founding members of the Group Seven Children's Foundation.

His son currently plays basketball at the University of Iowa.[10]

NBA career statistics[]

Legend
  GP Games played   GS  Games started  MPG  Minutes per game
 FG%  Field goal percentage  3P%  3-point field goal percentage  FT%  Free throw percentage
 RPG  Rebounds per game  APG  Assists per game  SPG  Steals per game
 BPG  Blocks per game  PPG  Points per game  Bold  Career high

Regular season[]

Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG
2001–02 Detroit 74 4 15.9 .505 .771 3.9 0.5 0.4 1.0 6.9
2002–03 Detroit 30 12 16.3 .552 .792 3.1 0.3 0.2 0.6 6.6
2003–04 Detroit 21 2 10.6 .407 .786 2.3 0.2 0.4 0.6 3.1
2003–04 Atlanta 3 0 17.0 .522 .500 3.0 0.7 0.0 0.7 8.3
2004–05 L.A. Clippers 58 2 16.0 .568 .859 3.2 0.4 0.2 0.7 5.8
2005–06 L.A. Clippers 29 2 14.2 .542 .756 2.2 0.3 0.2 0.7 4.7
Career 215 22 15.3 .527 .792 3.2 0.4 0.3 0.7 5.9

Playoffs[]

Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG
2002 Detroit 5 0 13.8 .455 .786 2.0 0.0 0.2 0.2 4.2
2003 Detroit 4 0 7.3 .353 .714 1.3 0.0 0.0 0.0 4.3
2006 L.A. Clippers 3 0 7.3 .333 1.3 0.0 0.0 0.3 0.7
Career 12 0 10.0 .387 .762 1.6 0.0 0.1 0.2 3.3

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ Clippers waive Rebraca; sign Conroy., April 6, 2007.
  2. ^ Pamesa Valencia viste de taronja al pívot serbio Zeljko Rebraca, June 19, 2007 (in Spanish).
  3. ^ "Two-time Euroleague champ Rebraca retires". Welcome to 7DAYS EuroCup. Retrieved 2020-04-26.
  4. ^ Rebrača objavio kraj karijere December 18, 2007 (in Serbian).
  5. ^ https://archive.fiba.com/pages/eng/fa/player/p/pid/8685/sid/2914/tid/390/_/1998_World_Championship_for_Men/index.html
  6. ^ "Classic Games: Rebraca saves the day as Yugoslavia edge Russia in World Cup 1998 Final - FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 - FIBA.basketball".
  7. ^ http://www.arhiva.srbija.gov.rs/vesti/1999-06/12/13276.html
  8. ^ https://admin.euroleague.net/news/voices/2013-2014/vladimir-stankovic/i/135270/zeljko-rebraca-blocks-master
  9. ^ "Intervju: Zeljko Rebraca". Archived from the original on 2002-09-22.
  10. ^ "UND's freshman center grew up in NBA locker rooms and yells at refs in Serbian | Grand Forks Herald". Archived from the original on 2019-02-03.

External links[]

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