Random Athlete Of The Day- Dalibor Bagaric

Dalibor Bargaric is a 7-1 255 lbs German Center, straight out of the Croatian Basketball League. Before Dalibor came to America, he  was killing it for the Benston Zagreb in Croatia. The big guy averaged 18.3 ppg and 10.4 rpg, and seemed to be a sure European steal in the 2000 NBA Draft along with Europeans like Hedo Türkoğlu, Jake Tsakalidis, Primož Brezec, and Marko Jarić. So with the 24th overall pick, the Chicago Bulls snagged Bagaric.

It seemed like the Bulls had a flawless draft with college stud Marcus Fizer, Croatian sensation Dalibor Bagaric, A.J. Guyton out of Indiana, and Jake Voskuhl and Khalid El-Amin out of powerhouse Uconn. At least one of those guys would turn into a superstar right?? Naw. It’s just unfortunate that they had that many picks in perhaps the worst draft in NBA history, but regardless let’s see how Dalibor did!

Bagaric in his rookie season only played 7.4 mpg, he was still a very raw player. He scored 1.3 a game  shooting 26% from the field, and managed to pull down 1.6 rpg. In 2001-02 Dalibor had his best year out of his limited three seasons (spoiler alert). In just under 13 minutes the big man averaged 3.7 ppg and 3.2 rpg, which are pretty impressive numbers for his limited play. But Dali still shot 40% from the field which is unacceptable for an offensive Center. In his last season Bagaric’s numbers dropped significantly; he was 8 for 26 in the 10 games he played in.

In Dalibor Bagaric’s short NBA career, he averaged 10.2 mpg, 2.6 ppg, 2.5 rpg in 95 games. Unfortunately Dalibor never got the chance to start an NBA game. But his basketball playing days definitely did not stop.

Dalibor went back to Europe and played for the:

• Olympiacos in Greece
• Fortitudo Bologna in Italy
• CB Girona in the Spanish ACB League
• Maroussi B.C
• CB Valladolid

Dalibor Bagaric returned back to Croatia, and currently plays for Cedevita Zagreb, so if you never got the chance to see Dali on the Bulls, you can now go see him play in Croatia.

-Schotz