Zeravica learned the trade at the Radnicki coaching school, in the Belgrade heighborhood of Crveni krst (Red Cross). He was an assistant for many years of Yugoslav national coach Aleksandar Nikolic, while gettingready to succeed him on the job. In the 1967 EuroBasket in Helsinki, Yugoslavia ended up ninth but Zeravica knew what he was doing. He took four players at 19 and 20 years old who would become world champs in Ljubljana three years later. Before that he had been a finalist three times: 1967 worlds in Montevideo, 1969 Olympics in Mexico and 1969 EuroBasket in Naples. He also won a silver medal at the 1971 EuroBasket in Germany.

After having worked in the bench of Partizan (winning the Korac Cup in 1978 by winning 117-110 in the final against Bosna Sarajevo) and FC Barcelona, he was back to the national team in 1980 and won the gold medal at the Moscow Olympics. He was also called for the 1982 worlds in Colombia and he responded with a bronze medal. In 1996 he also won the national league with Partizan in Yugoslavia. In 2007 he was inducted to the FIBA Hall of Fame.

Zeravica was a coach-investigator. He seeked the best in basketball by mixing what his saw in the USSR and United States schools and applied it to the talent of young Yugoslav players. He was also the promoter of one of the best duos ever in world basketball, the one formed by Dragan Kicanovic and Drazen Dalipagic. He was willing to talk basketball all day long. A great coach has left us, but his body of work will live on. His heritage forever will be great players and also many coaches that learned the sport under his supervision.

"The Euroleague Basketball family would like to send its deepest condolences to Ranko Zeravica´s family. Zeravica´s impact in basketball can´t be fully evaluated, his success as a coach and the number of talented players he helped to grow will remain as his legacy” Jordi Bertomeu, Euroleague Basketball President and CEO stated.

Euroleague Basketball would like to join Zeravica's close oned and the basketball family in Europe in mourning one of the most recognizable icons for our sport.