Josip Gjergja

Josip Gjergja
Personal information
Born	November 24, 1937 (age 88); Zara, Kingdom of Italy
Listed height	5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)
Listed weight	165 lb (75 kg)
Career information
Playing career	1958–1976
Position	Point guard
Coaching career	1983–1994, 2003
Career history
Playing
1958–1976	Zadar
Coaching
1983	Yugoslavia
1984–1985	PAOK
1993–1994	Zadar
1994	Croatia
2003	Prishtina
Career highlights
	As a player: FIBA European Selection (1968); 5× Yugoslav League champion: (1965, 1967, 1968, 1974, 1975); Yugoslav Cup winner (1970); Croatian Lifetime Achievement Award in Sport (2014); Croatian Sportsman of the Year (1963);
Men's basketball
Representing Yugoslavia
FIBA World Cup
EuroBasket
Head coach for Croatia
FIBA World Cup

Josip "Pino" Gjergja (also transliterated Đerđa, Djerdja or Giergia; born 24 November 1937), also credited as Giuseppe Giergia,^[a] is a retired Croatian basketball player and coach. He represented the Yugoslavia national basketball team internationally. He was nominated for the EuroLeague's 50 Greatest Contributors list in 2008. He was born in Zadar, to an Arbanasi family, hence the variously transcribed name. At a height of 1.76 m (5 ft 9 in) tall, he played at the point guard position.

Playing career

Gjergja wore KK Zadar's jersey for 18 consecutive seasons, thus becoming one of the club's legends, alongside Krešimir Ćosić. He was a three time Yugoslav Basketball League champion, from 1965 to 1968, and won another two Yugoslav championships, back-to back, in 1974 and 1975. He also won the Yugoslav Cup in 1970.

National team career

Gjergja was a member of the Yugoslav national team. With Yugoslavia, he won two FIBA World Cup silver medals, in 1963 and 1967, as well as a EuroBasket silver medal in 1965. He also participated in two Summer Olympic Games, in 1960 and 1964.

Coaching career

Gjergja began a coaching career after his retirement from playing. As a head coach, he led the senior Croatian national team to the FIBA World Cup bronze medal, at the 1994 FIBA World Championship. In 2003, he coached the club team, Prishtina, in Kosovo.

Personal life

Gjergja's son, Dario, is a professional basketball coach as well.^[2]

Notes and references

Notes

↑ Giuseppe Giergia was his birth name, changed by the Yugoslav regime. Recently he obtained legally to change his name back to the original version^[1]

References

↑ "Intervista a Pino Giergia" (PDF). Il Dalmata. 1–2015: 5–6. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2021-04-11. Retrieved 2020-12-26.
↑ "Ko je Dario Gjergja, hrvatski stručnjak izabran za novog selektora košarkaške reprezentacije Bosne i Hercegovine". bosna.hr (in Bosnian). 10 November 2025. Retrieved 10 November 2025.

External links

Josip Djerdja at FIBAeurope.com
Deprecated link at archive.today (archived January 22, 2013)
Josip Djerdja at Olympics.com
Giuseppe Gjergja at Olympedia

[2] Giuseppe Giergia was his birth name, changed by the Yugoslav regime. Recently he obtained legally to change his name back to the original version^[1]

[1] "Intervista a Pino Giergia" (PDF). Il Dalmata. 1–2015: 5–6. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2021-04-11. Retrieved 2020-12-26.

[3] "Ko je Dario Gjergja, hrvatski stručnjak izabran za novog selektora košarkaške reprezentacije Bosne i Hercegovine". bosna.hr (in Bosnian). 10 November 2025. Retrieved 10 November 2025.

[a]

[2]

[1]

v t e Franjo Bučar State Award for Sport – Life Achievement
1990s	Mirko Novosel (1991) Franjo Frntić (1992) Miljenko Finderle (1993) Herman Vukušić (1994) Rudolf Carek, Nikola Turk (1995) Milan Blašković, Marijan Malović (1996) Filip Ćurković, Zdravko Kovačević (1997) Josip Marić, Boris Volščanšek (1998) Vladimir Findak, Katica Ileš (1999)
2000s	Miloš Marković, Matija Ljubek (2000) Zlatko Šimenc, Slavko Podgorelec (2001) Žarko Dolinar, Krešimir Ćosić, Dražen Petrović (2002) Milan Antolković, Vicko Lučić (2003) Miro Mihovilović, Antun Vrdoljak (2004) Irislav Dolenec, Vicko Šoljan (2005) Nikola Jurković, Stjepan Korbar, Veljko Rogošić (2006) Miroslav Blažević, Ante Pavlović, Žarko Susić (2007) Ivo Cipci, Željko Mataja, Josip Modrić (2008) Zdravko Baršnik, Ivan Janjić, Renato Vučetić (2009)
2010s	Josip Čorak, Darko Dujmović, Velimir Kljaić (2010) Ivan Fattorini, Dragan Milanović, Vinko Tomljanović (2011) Ivan Ivančić, Marinko Mikulandra, Ratko Rudić (2012) Jozo Alebić, Erna Hawelka Rađenović, Fredi Kramer (2013) Vinko Bajrović, Anto Ćavar, Giuseppe Giergia (2014) Gojko Arneri, Đurđica Bjedov, Janko Goleš (2015) Ivo Vidović^, Jelica Pavličić-Štefančić, Luciano Sušanj (2016) Zdenko Zorko, Zdravko Hebel^, Zina Urlić (2017) Vladimir Janković, Milka Babović, Mate Parlov^* (2018) Zdenko Kobeščak, Duško Antunović^*, Zdravko Malić (2019)
2020s	Ante Kostelić, Petar Skansi, Ivo Trumbić (2020) Željko Klarić, Mihovil Nakić, Đurđa Fočić-Šourek (2021) Nikola Plećaš, Boško Lozica, Edo Pezzi (2022)
^* – posthumously

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