Petar ‘Pero’ Skansi, basketball champion with Croatia and Treviso, died

The world of Italian and international coaching mourns Petar “Pero” Skansi, who died today in Ljubljana where he lived, at the age of 78. He had been ill for some time, in the last few weeks he had gotten worse. Croatian, or rather Dalmatian as he loved to qualify, Skansi was a 206 cm long mobile and combative in the Yugoslav and Jugoplastika Spalato national team of the 60-70s, also passing through Pesaro with Max Mobili in the 1972/73 season. As a player he won the 1970 World Cup in Ljubljana and the silver world champion in Montevideo 1967 and Mexico Olympic 1968. Then with Spalato he became the first player-coach, dedicating himself definitively to the mission of coach at the end of the 70s. He was the coach of the Croatian national team who at the 1992 Barcelona Games challenged the first real US Dream Team in the final for gold, leading champions such as Drazen Petrovic, Kukoc, Radja and Vrankovic. In Italy he coached in Pesaro (1983 Cup Winners Cup), Fabriano, Venice, Rome, Treviso under the Benetton label (1992 championship and 1993 Italian Cup) and Fortitudo (1998 Super Cup). On the bench of Effe he experienced the mockery of Danilovic’s 4-point shot in game-5 of the 1998 championship final, the Bolognese derby that made history. He ended his career in Slovenia at the helm of Novo Mesto in 2004. A shrewd and funny character, he was much loved by his players and much detested by his colleagues. He lived on the sea of ​​Opatija, his favorite habitat of him, he loved boats and sailing. He had many interests. A man of the world who had basketball in his DNA.