Bosnia and Herzegovina men's national basketball team explained

Country:	Bosnia and Herzegovina
Nickname:	Zmajevi (The Dragons) Zlatni ljiljani (The Golden Lilies)
Coach:	Adis Bećiragić
Joined Fiba:	1992
Fiba Zone:	FIBA Europe
National Fed:	KSBIH
Wc Appearances:	None
Zone Championship:	EuroBasket
Zone Appearances:	10
Zone Medals:	None
H Body:	FFDF00
H Pattern B:	_thinbluesides
H Shorts:	FFDF00
A Body:	0000aa
A Pattern B:	_thinyellowsides
A Shorts:	0000aa
First Game:	97–69 (Wrocław, Poland; 30 May 1993)
Largest Loss:	52–102 (Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina; 29 June 2018)

The Bosnia and Herzegovina men's national basketball team (Bosnian: Košarkaška reprezentacija Bosne i Hercegovine / Кошаркашка репрезентација Босне и Херцеговине) represents Bosnia and Herzegovina in international basketball competitions, and is governed by the Basketball Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Until 1992, Bosnian basketballers played for Yugoslavia.

Bosnia and Herzegovina reached their first international tournament at the EuroBasket in 1993. They have competed ten times at the event overall. The team has yet to qualify on the global level to play at the FIBA World Cup.

History

Until 1992, Bosnia and Herzegovina was a part of Yugoslavia, which meant players born in Bosnia and Herzegovina played for the Yugoslavia national team. Between 1947 and 1992, the following Bosnia-born players were selected to play for the Yugoslavia national team at the biggest competitions (Olympics, World Cup, and EuroBasket) at least once: Mirza Delibašić, Dražen Dalipagić, Predrag Danilović, Zoran Savić, Ratko Radovanović, Borislav Stanković, Milan Bjegojević, Dragiša Vučinić, Sabit Hadžić, Emir Mutapčić, and Mario Primorac. During this time, Bosnia and Herzegovina's capital city, Sarajevo, was one of five locations where games were played during the 1970 FIBA World Cup; where Yugoslavia finished in first place, the team's first gold medal at the FIBA World Cup.

After gaining its independence from Yugoslavia, Bosnia and Herzegovina qualified to the EuroBasket for the first time in 1993. Entering the tournament, Bosnia and Herzegovina earned their first ever EuroBasket victory in their final Group A match against Sweden.^[1] The team would go on to make it to the quarter-finals before losing to the eventual bronze medalists Croatia, which sent the team into the classification phase to finish out the competition.^[2]

After a positive showing for the national team in their first EuroBasket appearance, they would fail to qualify for the tournament in 1995. However, Bosnia and Herzegovina would turn around to qualify for the continental showpiece five consecutive times (1997, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2005). Although after that stretch for the national team, they would only qualify for the Euros three times after 2005 until 2015. Heading toward qualification for EuroBasket 2017, Bosnia and Herzegovina came up short in their attempt to qualify to the EuroBasket for the first time since 2009.^[3]

For qualification to reach the 2019 FIBA World Cup, Bosnia and Herzegovina first went through European Pre-Qualifiers, where the team won four out of their six matches (4–2) to advance.^[4] Entering the first round of the qualifiers, the national team earned a tough win at home against Russia 81–76.^[5] After the win, Bosnia and Herzegovina would pull out one more victory during the rest of the first round of qualifying to position itself to advance. In the second and final round of 2019 World Cup qualifying, the team lost its first five matches by single digits before defeating Bulgaria. However, the five crucial losses ultimately eliminated the team from clinching qualification.^[6]

In 2022, Bosnia and Herzegovina were set to play in the EuroBasket 2022 but were in danger on missing out on the tournament due to a lack of funds, just weeks before the start.^[7] Eventually, the federation received 150,000 convertible marks in financial aid from the Bosnian government, to ensure participation in the tournament.^[8]

Competitive record

FIBA World Cup

World Cup					Qualification
Year	Position	width=30		width=30		width=30		width=30	width=30	width=30
1950 to 1990	Part of Yugoslavia				Part of Yugoslavia
1994	Did not qualify	EuroBasket served as qualifiers
1998
2002
2006
2010
2014
2019	18	7	11
2023	12	6	6
2027	To be determined				To be determined
Total	0/8				30	13	17

Olympic Games

Olympic Games					Qualifying
Year	Position	width=30		width=30		width=30		width=30	width=30	width=30
1936 to 1988	Part of Yugoslavia				Part of Yugoslavia
1992	Did not enter				Did not enter
1996	Did not qualify	Did not qualify
2000
2004
2008
2012
2016
2020
2024	5	3	2
Total	0/9				5	3	2

EuroBasket

EuroBasket					Qualification
Year	Position	width=30		width=30		width=30		width=30	width=30	width=30
1935 to 1991	Part of Yugoslavia				Part of Yugoslavia
1993	8th	9	2	7	7	5	2
1995	Did not qualify				10	4	6
1997	15th	5	1	4	10	7	3
1999	15th	3	0	3	10	9	1
2001	13th	3	0	3	10	6	4
2003	15th	3	0	3	10	6	4
2005	15th	3	0	3	6	4	2
2007	Did not qualify	12	5	7
2009	10	6	4
2011	19th	5	2	3	8	3	5
2013	13th	5	3		2	8	6	2
2015	23rd	5	1	4	4	4	0
2017	Did not qualify				4	2	2
2022	18th	5	2	3	6	5	1
2025	To be determined				To be determined
Total	10/14	46	11	35	115	72	43

Results and fixtures

2025

Team

Current roster

Roster for the EuroBasket 2025 Qualifiers matches on 23 and 26 February 2024 against Cyprus and France.^[9]

Notable players

Current notable players who have played for the national team:

Records

Players in bold are still active.

Most appearances
Rank	Player	NT Career	Games
1.	Gordan Firić	1993–2006	63
2.	Samir Lerić	1993–2005	61
3.	Elmedin Kikanović (C)	2006–	59
4.	Jasmin Hukić (C)	1998–2005	54
5.	Kenan Bajramović (C)	2001–2011	52
6.	Mirza Teletović (C)	2003–2014	51
7.	Adis Bećiragić	1993–1999	45
8.	Nenad Marković (C)	1994–2001	43
9.	Elvir Ovčina	1997–2005	40
10.	Ermin Jazvin	2001–2011	39

Most points scored
Rank	Player	NT Career	Points
1.	Nenad Marković (C)	1994–2001	840
2.	Mirza Teletović (C)	2003–2014	655
3.	Gordan Firić	1993–2006	639
4.	Jasmin Hukić (C)	1998–2005	581
5.	Elmedin Kikanović (C)	2006–	500
6.	Samir Avdić	1993–1997	390
7.	Samir Lerić	1993–2005	388
8.	Elvir Ovčina	1997–2005	376
9.	Damir Mršić	2000–2006	345
10.	Kenan Bajramović (C)	2001–2011	342

Past rosters

1993 EuroBasket

finished 8th among 16 teams

4 Samir Selešković, 5 Gordan Firić, 6 Adis Bećiragić, 8 Senad Begović, 9 Ilijas Masnić, 10 Mario Primorac, 11 Samir Avdić,
12 Emir Mutapčić, 13 Emir Halimić, 14 Sabahudin Bilalović (Coach: Ibrahim Krehić)----1997 EuroBasket