NBA: The 6 basketball Hall of Famers to have never played in the league

Kresimir Cosic (Inducted 1996)

Kresimir Cosic is a player who, even by today’s standards, would’ve been a terror on the court. The 6-foot-11 Croatian Center proved himself to be a headache for many teams during the 60’s,70’s, and 80’s. Cosic is also the first player on this list to have an American basketball career, playing for three years at Brigham Young University.

Before attending college at the age of 22, Cosic was already a two-time Olympic silver medalist, and an Olympic gold medalist. He achieved his first medal, a silver medal in the 1968 Summer Olympics, hen he was just 19 years old! Cosic was able to win the gold with Yugoslavia in 1980. However, what’s probably an even more impressive feat was Cosic’s Yugoslavian team as able to have a 3-1 record against Belov’s USSR team, with the only lose coming against the 1972 USSR Championship team. In Cosic’s 1980 Olympic season, he averaged nine points, seven rebounds, one assist, one steal, and 0.4 blocks per game over eight games, en route to winning the gold medal.

Again, not exactly impressive numbers, but we don’t know how many minutes he played, and in the 1980 Olympics Cosic was 31 years old.

Cosic played for Brigham Young University from 1970-1973, and these numbers more accurately represent what he was able to do on the court. Over his college career, Cosic averaged 19 points and 11 rebounds (assists, steals, and blocks were not recorded during this time) on 48% shooting.

In his 47 years of life, Cosic was a two-time Eurobasket MVP, has 2 World Championship gold medals, has one Olympic gold medal, and a five-time Yugoslavian League Champion. According to various reports, Cosic was also the first recorded stretch five, as he was a long shot threat during his prime as well.