Slovak Basketball Player of Century Stanislav Kropilak Dies Aged 67

Bratislava, October 14 (TASR) – Stanislav Kropilak – the Slovak basketball player of the 20th century – died at the age of 67, TASR learnt from the Facebook page of his former club Inter Bratislava and the basket.sk website on Friday.

Inter Bratislava with Kropilak was four times the best team in Czechoslovakia, and Kropilak in the Czechoslovak team won the silver medal at the 1985 European Championship. He was declared the best basketball player in Czechoslovakia five times (1979, 1980, 1982, 1983, 1985), he was the best Slovak under the baskets a total of ten times in the 1975–1984 period. At the end of his career, he also played in Belgium and Luxembourg.

The silver from the 1985 European Championship in Stuttgart was the biggest success of Czechoslovak basketball since the beginning of the 1970s, and Kropilak was the captain of the team at the time. In addition, the 208-centimetre high pivot won two more bronze medals at the European Championships in 1977 and 1981.

He also appeared twice at the Olympics, namely in Montreal in 1976 with 6th place, and four years later in Moscow, where Czechoslovakia ended up ninth.