Before the start of the biggest derby of Croatian sport between Hajduk and Dinamo at Poljud, the legendary former basketball player Dino Rađa appeared at the centre of the pitch. Hajduk's captain Zoran Nizic handed him the White jersey number 14 in front of the packed Poljud and with loud ovations of 31,751 spectators.

One of the greatest European basketball players of all times recently officially received a great acknowledgment by entering the Basketball Hall of Fame in American Springfield, and now he was handed over the award from his favorite team Hajduk. Dino immediately wore a white shirt and headed for the stands to support Hajduk in the biggest Croatian derby.

He is the fourth Croat who has received this acknowledgement reserved only for the selected ones. Prior to that, the Basketball Hall of Fame inductees were Kresimir Cosic in 1996, Drazen Petrovic in 2002 and Mirko Novosel in 2007.

Dino Rađa was born on April 24, 1967 in Split. As a child he tried several sports: rowing, swimming, water polo, but he showed a special talent for basketball.

Upon arrival at Gripe, he soon reached the junior team. He was first a member of the team that won the European championship in 1986 and was playing Bormio World Championships in 1987, where the double world champion USA was defeated twice. In the first game, Toni Kukoc made them crazy, and in the second, when they focused on him, Dino Rađa did it.

He won three Yugoslav titles with Jugoplastika in 1988, 1989 and 1990 and the Yugoslav Basketball Cup in 1990. 

Already in 1989 in Munich, at the age of 22, Rađa experienced incredible success - Jugoplastika beat Barcelona and Maccabi to climb on top of Europe. Dino Rađa was the key player in that big win. Rađa repeated the same success with his club in 1990. Jugoplastika again wins European Champions Cup in Spanish Zaragoza. In the final, just like a year earlier in the semi-finals, they defeated the famous Barcelona.

In 1990, he left to Il Messaggero in Rome as the best paid European basketball player. His transfer was compared with that of Maradona. The five-year contract in Italy was terminated by moving to the NBA league in 1993. His new team was Boston Celtics, the most successful NBA team. He was particularly successful in 1995 and 1996, but injuries returned him to Europe. With Panathinaikos, he won two Greek championships and in 1999 he returned to Croatian basketball. He played for Zadar for a year, then played for Cibona from Zagreb and the Greek Olympiacos. At the end of the career, the most beautiful thing happened, he returned home to Gripe in Split, with the title of Croatia's champion in 2003. It was their first title in the independent Croatia. After he retired, Dino Rađa was President of the Basketball Club Split for several years.

The successes of Dina Rađa at international level are as important as those with his clubs. As a national team player of Yugoslavia, he participated in the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, where he won a silver Olympic medal and as a representative of Croatia at the Olympic Games in 1992, in Barcelona, ​​he also won a silver medal. At the World Championship in Buenos Aires in 1990, he won the gold medal, and in Toronto in 1994 a bronze medal with Croatian basketball team. He participated in five basketball European championships - as a player of Yugoslavia he won the bronze medal in 1987 in Athens, gold in 1989 in Zagreb and 1991 in Rome, and as a player of Croatia, he won bronze medals at the European championships in 1993 in Munich and in 1995 in Athens. He played for Yugoslavia from 1987 to 1991, and Croatia from 1992 to 1996 and participated in the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. In 1993, he won a silver medal in the Mediterranean Games in the French Landouec - Roussillon.

He was awarded the number of sports recognitions - in 1989 he was named the best basketball player in the country by Sportske Novosti and Nedjeljna Dalmacija polls. He was chosen in the first five of the 1993 European championships in Munich and in the 1994 World Cup in Toronto. He was also awarded the State Award for sport Franjo Bucar as a member of the national team in 1992 and individually in 2003, as well as the State Award Red Danice Hrvatske with the figure of Franjo Bucar.