The 1987–88 Yugoslav First Basketball League season was the 44th season of the Yugoslav First Basketball League, the highest professional basketball league in SFR Yugoslavia.
Teams SR Croatia Cibona Jugoplastika Šibenka Zadar SR Serbia Borac Čačak Crvena Zvezda IMT Partizan SR Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosna SR Macedonia MZT Skopje SR Montenegro Budućnost SR Slovenia Smelt Olimpija
Regular season Classification Regular season ranking 1987–88GVPPFPSPt 1. Jugoplastika 222112025176443 2. Cibona 221752235200739 3. Partizan 221572066197337 4. Smelt Olimpija 221482018194336 5. Zadar 2210122050197432 6. Crvena Zvezda 2210121937199732 7. IMT 229132042210631 8. Šibenka 229131976202031 9. Bosna 228141992202830 10. Borac Čačak 227151839200229 11. MZT Skopje 226161858204628 12. Budućnost 226161915209328
Results
Playoff Only the top four placed league table teams qualified for the playoffs quarterfinal automatically.
Teams placed fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth were joined by the top two Second League teams for an 8-team play-in round. The winner of each best-of-three series advanced to the playoffs quarterfinal round.
Finals Top-seeded Jugoplastika reached the playoff finals dominantly, rampaging though the league with a 21–1 regular season record followed by two confident playoff sweeps.
On the other hand, despite being the defending champions, third seed KK Partizan returned to the playoff finals somewhat unexpectedly, having to overcome second seed KK Cibona's home-court advantage in their semifinal series by improbably defeating the Zagreb team away in deciding game three, 77–83, with Cibona's superstar Dražen Petrović held to only 13 points while Partizan's best player, young center Vlade Divac, scored 23 points.
Game 1: Jugoplastika vs. Partizan 101–79 Twenty-year-old Divac would also become the main story of the finals' opening game despite being absent from it due to picking up a knee injury under never fully explained circumstances. It would later come out that his injury likely occurred jumping out of a hotel window while leaving, without permission, the pre-finals team quarantine to meet with his girlfriend. As a result of missing their best player, Partizan struggled mightily in game one away in Split, getting blown out by 22 points, 101–79, with Jugoplastika's young center Dino Rađa scoring 23 points, Željko Poljak adding 16, and young Toni Kukoč scoring 15. On the other hand, hapless Partizan's best contribution was from their young point guard Saša Đorđević who scored 22 points.
Game 2: Partizan vs. Jugoplastika 86–80 Seeing that without Divac's inside presence they stand no chance versus Jugoplastika, Partizan hustled their injured young center back on the court. Playing on one leg with a heavily bandaged knee, Divac still led the game two scoring with 18 points as Partizan pulled out an 86–80 victory at home. It was only Jugoplastika's second loss of the entire season.
Game 3: Jugoplastika vs. Partizan 88–67 Still-injured Divac appeared in the deciding game three back in Split but was no match for the rampant home team looking for their first league title since 1977. The fact that Partizan played with virtually no inside presence under the basket was heavily exploited by Jugoplastika's center line of Rađa and , as their backup center Sobin posted his season-high 28 points. Jugoplastika won the game easily, claiming the league title.
The winning roster of Jugoplastika: Zoran Sretenović Velimir Perasović Vladan Alanović Toni Kukoč
Željko Poljak Ivica Burić Žan Tabak Duško Ivanović Dino Rađa Petar Vučica Paško Tomić Teo Čizmić Leon Stipaničev Alen Koludrović
Coach: Božidar Maljković
Scoring leaders Dražen Petrović (Cibona) – ___ points (38.0ppg) (IMT) – __ points (30.1 ppg)reference
Qualification in 1988–89 season European competitions
FIBA European Champions Cup Jugoplastika (champions)
FIBA Cup Winners' Cup Cibona (Cup winners)
FIBA Korać Cup Partizan (3rd) Smelt Olimpija (4th) Zadar (5th) Crvena Zvezda (6th)
Basketball Cup Preliminary round + Key to colors Top placed team in each group advanced to semifinals
Aranđelovac tournament TeamPldWLPDPts 1 Partizan 3 2 1 +124 2 MZT Skopje 3 2 1 +14 3 Smelt Olimpija 3 2 1 -134 4 Prvi partizan 3 0 3 0 Bar tournament TeamPldWLPDPts 1 Rabotnički 3 3 0 6 2 Crvena zvezda 3 1 2 +142 3 Šibenka 3 1 2 +12 4 Mornar Bar 3 1 2 -152
Kutina tournament TeamPldWLPts 1 Cibona 3 3 0 6 2 Bosna 3 2 1 4 3 IMT 3 1 2 2 4 Trepča 3 0 3 0 Novi Sad tournament TeamPldWLPts 1 Jugoplastika 3 3 0 6 2 Zadar 3 2 1 4 3 Vojvodina 2 0 2 0 4 Sloboda Dita Tuzla 2 0 2 0
Bracket
References