Žarko Paspalj
Encyclopedia
Žarko Paspalj (Serbian Cyrillic: Жарко Паспаљ) (born March 27, 1966) is a retired Serbia
n professional basketball
player and current sports administrator. Since 2009 he's been vice-president of the Serbian Olympic Committee.
From 1982 until 1998, he played for Budućnost
, Partizan
, San Antonio Spurs
, Olympiacos
, Panathinaikos, Panionios, Paris Racing
, Aris
, and Virtus
.
For years, he was also an automatic choice for the Yugoslav national team, representing his country in two Olympics
, 1 World championship, and 4 European championships
.
, SR Montenegro
, in SFR Yugoslavia
. His Serbian forester
father Jovan from a small village on the slopes of Kozara
in Bosanska Krajina
moved to Pljevlja on business as he dealt in lumber trade. Once there he got married to a local woman Mileva and stayed on.
When young Žarko was 10 years old, his father moved the family to Titograd because he got a job there. Žarko took up basketball and soon distinguished himself in the youth system of KK Budućnost
.
and Luka Pavićević. Back then, Budućnost was a small, unambitious side that essentially served as talent feeder for bigger Yugoslav league clubs like Partizan
, Cibona
, Jugoplastika
, Red Star or even Bosna
.
Constantly in danger of relegation, Budućnost sometimes banked on more than just its own quality for top-league survival. There is an unconfirmed story that became a bit of local urban legend
from the early 1980s when Paspalj was a junior, about Cibona coming to Titograd for a late season game which was meaningless for Zagreb
side but crucial for Budućnost's hopes of remaining in top division. The story goes that a deal was struck between two sides to allow the home team to win, while in return Cibona management got to watch Budućnost's juniors practice and take whichever player they liked back to Zagreb. Knowing Paspalj was by far their best young prospect and an asset that would soon be worth a lot of money, Budućnost's club management wouldn't let him train for a few days, which meant that Cibona never saw him and picked another player.
Not too long after that, Paspalj entered the senior squad, contributing greatly to Budućnost's third place league finish in 1985/86 season and a playoff semi-final where they lost to eventual champions KK Zadar
.
. Eighteen-year-old Vlade Divac
, another rising star, also joined the club that summer from Sloga Kraljevo
. Together with young Sasha Djordjevic, Željko Obradović
and more established players like Milenko Savović
and Goran Grbović
, they won the national title in a final against Red Star Belgrade
. Paspalj played well enough to earn a spot on the national team of Yugoslavia that won the Bronze at the 1987 European Championships
in Athens
, Greece. The following year, in 1988, he played a leading role in the side that made it to the Olympic final against the Soviet Union, and marked himself out as a potential star with some fine performances for Partizan at the 1988 McDonald's Open.
Paspalj became one of the first Europeans to move to the NBA, joining the San Antonio Spurs
despite going undrafted. He ended up with the Spurs due to Gregg Popovich
, the team's assistant coach at the time, who met 23-year-old Paspalj at a warm-up tournament in Germany in July where the Yugoslav national team was preparing for Eurobasket 1989
. Upon arriving to the United States, Paspalj even ended up living in Popovich's house for a few weeks as he acclimatized to the new surroundings.
However, Paspalj's NBA move turned out to be far from successful as he featured in only 28 games, scoring a total of 72 points in 181 minutes (2.6 points and 6½ minutes per game) of action. He also drew the ire of head coach Larry Brown
by admitting he played "no defense, only offense." He also confessed a weakness for Pizza Hut
and Marlboros. However, Paspalj did develop a cult following among fans, evidenced by the Terry Cummings
-penned song "The Mark of Zarko", which was sung to the tune of "The Mark of Zorro
." Eventually he was cut from the team three days before the 1990 NBA Playoffs
started, as the team officials wanted to make roster room for veteran forward Mike Mitchell
.
in the summer of 1991.
from Thessaloniki
. Olympiakos lost 97-82, but Paspalj top-scored with 35 points on 8/9 free throws, 12/20 two-pointers and 1/2 three-pointers. During the season, Paspalj scored an average of 33.7 points per game. One of his best performances saw him score 46 points in a 94-83 victory over Panionios, on 11/14, 13/22, 3/5. Playing on a fairly modest squad led by head coach Giannis Ioannidis
, Paspalj was the go-to player in almost every match, capable of scoring from almost any angle and distance with his outside shooting a particularly deadly weapon in his arsenal. However PAOK
defeated Olympiacos for the title. On the national team front, Paspalj was denied the chance to participate in the 1992 Olympic Games
in Barcelona
due to the sanctions imposed on FR Yugoslavia
.
In his second season at Olympiacos, 1992–93, Paspalj benefited from a strengthened team (acquisitions of Walter Berry, Franko Nakić
, Milan Tomić
, and Dragan Tarlać
) and Olympiacos won the Greek Championship, defeating arch-rivals Panathinaikos in a controversial final series to claim their first championship since 1978. Paspalj played a crucial role in the triumph with a series of memorable matches against Aris in the play-off quarter-finals (when he scored 44 points - 9/10, 13/22, 3/4) and PAOK in the semi-finals. He also top-scored in the final series, all of which Olympiakos won without home advantage. Paspalj scored an average of 25 points per game, including a career-high 56 against Dafni on the opening day of the season in a game that Olympiakos remarkably lost 103-105, but he effectively cost his team a place in the Euroleague
Final Four when he stepped over the line in the dying seconds of the crucial play-off match against Limoges of France.
The 1993/94 season saw Olympiacos crowned League and Cup double champions in Greece. However Paspalj's shooting statistics deteriorated alarmingly during the year as he became a far more erratic player, capable of only scoring in bursts or not at all. In particular his free-throw percentage nose-dived from 86% to under 50% and this led to a traumatic experience at the Euroleague
Final Four in Tel Aviv
in April 1994, when Paspalj missed a crucial free throw with four seconds left as Olympiacos suffered a shock defeat in the final, 59-57 to Joventut Badalona
. Paspalj was voted the Euroleague Final Four MVP but the vote took place at half-time in the final, with Olympiacos seemingly headed for victory. However, although he added to his team-high of 22 points in the semi-final against Panathinaikos with another team-high 15 points in the final, all his points came in the first half, and he ended with 3 of 10 free-throw shooting, and later admitted to Greek television that he knew before he took the final free-throw, which he needed to score to have a chance of saving the match, that he would miss. This mental block would plague Paspalj for the remainder of his career. It transformed one of the European game's finest shooters into a centre-forward who relied on his experience, guile and skill on the fast break to penetrate opposing defenses. He remained an enormously talented player with a wealth of experience but lost something of the vitality and spontaneity of his earlier years when his outside shooting was often deadly effective.
In what would prove to be his final league appearance for Olympiakos, in the fifth playoff game against PAOK in 1994, Paspalj memorably rolled back the years as he scored 30 points to lead Olympiakos to a hard-fought 70-65 victory to take the series 3-2. Following a series of below-par performances in which his shooting percentage had dipped alarmingly, Paspalj memorably made 3/4 free throws, 12/20 two-point shots and hit a buzzer-beater three-pointer to close the first half. This consistent shooting was reminiscent of his first two, memorable, years, and contrasted sharply with the scenes at the end of Game 1 when, after having shot 1 from 7 from the free-throw line, Paspalj made two free throws in the final seconds to immense jubilation and celebration from the stands.
However the move across town couldn't hide the flaws in Paspalj's game and his shot continued to deteriorate. His free throw percentage dipped still further and in many games was well below 50%, while three-point shots became a rarity. He was the top-scorer for his new team with 19 points per game but failed to lift them beyond second place in the Greek League and the semi-finals of the Euroleague, when in both cases Panathinaikos was defeated by Olympiakos, which made even the Panathinaikos fans disillusioned with him.
This was evident during the 1995 European Basketball Championships
held in Athens, when fans of both clubs jeered him, although a huge chunk of their dissatisfaction could be attributed to Paspalj being the captain of the powerhouse Yugoslav squad that just ended Greek hopes of winning the title on home soil in an emotionally charged semi-final. Lifting that trophy in front of the Athens crowd served as huge vindication and confidence boost for Paspalj after a couple of tough seasons, and the release of tension was evident in his jubilant locker-room interview with Vassilis Skountis when Paspalj ebulliently joined in with the chant (meant ironically in this instance as he was clutching the trophy in his arms) that "You will never lift the Cup, Paspalj, Paspalj!"
, also of Athens. This was a smaller club that had regularly over-achieved, and it had the good fortune of being led by the great Dušan Ivković
who knew Paspalj well from coaching him in the national team. Ivkovic became a father-figure to Paspalj and improved his self-confidence and his general game, and Paspalj inspired Panionios BC
to third place in the league with a series of fine performances indicating that after two lean years he was nearing his peak once more. In one performance against Sporting he scored 42 points (11/16, 14/19, 1/2), his highest since his second year at Olympiacos, while in a KORAC Cup match against Borovica he hit 36 on 8/9 free throws and 14/18 two-point attempts. Throughout the season his shooting became more confident and he gradually regained his ability to hit outside shots. This culminated in a match against Iraklio in 1996, when despite missing his first free-throw attempt he hit the next 15, something that would have been routine in 1991 and 1992 but unthinkable in 1994 and 1995.
This was evident in both the semi-final of the A1 Playoffs, when he nearly led his team past Panathinaikos, and in the 3rd place playoff, when he led Panionios to a 3-0 sweep of PAOK with 27, 26 and 17 points.
in Atlanta, when 30-year-old Paspalj scored 16 points in the first half of the final against the Dream Team as Yugoslavia only trailed 38-43 at halftime. He faded in the second half along with entire Yugoslavia team but still ended up a top scorer with 19 points, leaving a good impression that prompted Atlanta Hawks
to invite him to pre-season training camp in September. This came after Paspalj very nearly rejoined Olympiacos, now managed by his former Panionios mentor Ivkovic - a move that would have delighted most fans of the Piraeus club, who still retained tremendous affection for Paspalj's achievement in raising the club into the powerhouse of Europe, despite his subsequent move to Panathinaikos. His stay in Atlanta, however, was even shorter than his tenure with the Spurs. A week into camp, he relinquished the guaranteed clause in his contract and returned to Europe because of family problems. The return to the NBA thus fell through and it was soon discovered that the reason for his abrupt return home were the revelations of an extramarital affair with a woman in Athens.
Paspalj spent the 1996/97 season in Paris, playing for PSG Racing Basket
and leading the club to its first national title in 43 years.
. This grand old club throughout the 1980s, had fallen on hard times, and was about to embark on one of the most difficult seasons of its history. Paspalj had some memorable performances in the autumn of 1997, including a game against PAOK when he steered Aris to victory with 20 points (2/2, 9/11). He also played particularly well against his old clubs, Olympiakos and Panathinaikos, and began scoring once again with three-point shots as in his heyday in the early 1990s. In February 1998 Paspalj, playing injured, led his team to victory in the Greek Cup but the majority of his team-mates left the club the following day after having gone without payment for some time. Paspalj remained, but an injury meant that he did not play again that season as Aris alarmingly dropped down the table and narrowly avoided relegation to the A2 league.
. However, effects of past injuries and years of chain-smoking caught up with him and he was cut from the team in December after a series of undistinguished performances. During this period he had one final appearance in front of his old Olympiakos fans, in a Euroleague game in October 1998, scoring 2 points (0/2 1/5). The tragedy for basketball was that a player of his caliber was lost to the sport at the age of 32, but for Paspalj himself a personal near-tragedy was still to come.
Summing up his 14 and a half seasons in professional basketball, Paspalj is remembered for a successful globetrotting career that included a multitude of trophies and individual awards. Perhaps the single most memorable aspect of his game is the off-balance, unorthodox sling-style shooting technique he perfected — a move that served him so well in the first part of his career, but deserted him later on.
Paspalj also participated in Euroleague
Final Fours on three occasions with three different teams. In 1988 he was part of the young Partizan squad that came in third. In 1994, he led Olympiacos
to the final but couldn't make the last step. The very next season he was there again, this time with Panathinaikos, but they finished third.
In addition, Paspalj won two Olympic silver medals (in Basketball at the 1988 Summer Olympics
, and Basketball at the 1996 Summer Olympics
), as well as a bronze at Eurobasket 1987
.
while playing recreational football in Athens, and was hospitalized for several weeks. He suffered a second heart attack in July 2001, but battled to regain his health through surgery followed by a long process of hospitalization that lasted all throughout 2002.
In the fall of 2005, during a discussion on RTS
television's Ključ
programme regarding coronary issues, he stated that two heart attacks weren't enough to force him into quitting smoking or into substantially changing his lifestyle.
In a November 2007 interview on the same television (Balkanskom ulicom programme) he admitted to still smoking, but added he cut back on it significantly and is in the process of phasing it out completely.
who just came back to the national team after being away for four years. The most important aspect of Paspalj's job was helping create the right atmosphere by acting as a liaison between the head coach and the players. The thinking was that such a well-liked former player would have a soothing effect on the damaged inter-squad relations. Paspalj was also entrusted with the role of convincing different players, especially ones from the NBA
, to come play for the national team.
Unfortunately, his time at the post coincided with two of the team's worst performances in recent history as S&M finished 11th (out of 12 squads) at the 2004 Athens Olympics
and then failed to reach the quarter-finals of the 2005 European Championships
held on home soil in Serbia
. He resigned after the second failure, citing health reasons and a desire to spend more time with his wife and daughters.
.
Initial projection of a summer 2006 opening turned out to be too optimistic, so, according to Paspalj, the new target for grand opening moved to the summer of 2007, however even that wasn't to be. He eventually pulled out of the venture in December 2007, which is when the project was taken over by Novi Sad
based Genel company.
won the presidency of the Serbian Olympic Committee, he also appointed Paspalj to be his second in command.
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
n professional basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
player and current sports administrator. Since 2009 he's been vice-president of the Serbian Olympic Committee.
From 1982 until 1998, he played for Budućnost
KK Buducnost Podgorica
KK Budućnost Podgorica is a professional basketball club from Podgorica, Montenegro. It is a part of Budućnost Podgorica sport society. The team currently competes in First Montenegrin Opportunity League and regional Adriatic League...
, Partizan
KK Partizan
Košarkaški klub Partizan is a Serbian professional basketball club. It is part of the multi-sports Belgrade-based club Partizan. The club competes in the Serbian League, Adriatic League and the Euroleague....
, San Antonio Spurs
San Antonio Spurs
The San Antonio Spurs are an American professional basketball team based in San Antonio, Texas. They are part of the Southwest Division of the Western Conference in the National Basketball Association ....
, Olympiacos
Olympiacos BC
Olympiacos B.C. , also known simply as Olympiacos and Olympiacos Piraeus, is a Greek professional basketball club, part of Olympiacos CFP, based in Piraeus. The basketball club, founded in 1931, is one of the most successful in Greece and a traditional powerhouse in European competitions...
, Panathinaikos, Panionios, Paris Racing
Paris Basket Racing
Paris Basket Racing, or PBR, is a now-defunct French professional basketball club from Paris. It was founded in the year 1922 as the basketball section of the sports club Racing Club de Paris. The team took the name "Paris Basket Racing" in 2000....
, Aris
Aris BC
Aris Basketball Club is the professional basketball team of the Thessaloniki-based Greek sport club Aris Thessaloniki. Aris BC was founded in 1922, eight years after the founding of Aris Thessaloniki....
, and Virtus
Virtus Bologna
-Notable players: Marco Bonamico 9 seasons: '75-'76, '77-'78, '80-'86, '88-'89 Carlo Caglieris 6 seasons: '75-'81 Pietro Generali 6 seasons: '75-'76, '78-'83 Gianni Bertolotti 5 seasons: '75-'80 Terry Driscoll 3 seasons: '75-'78 Eric Luc Leclerc 1 season: '75-'76 Luigi Serafini 2 seasons: '75-'77...
.
For years, he was also an automatic choice for the Yugoslav national team, representing his country in two Olympics
Basketball at the Summer Olympics
Basketball has been a Summer Olympics sport for men consistently since 1936. Prior to its inclusion as a medal sport, it was held as demonstration event in 1904 and 1932, both in the United States. Women's basketball was played in the Olympics only since 1976....
, 1 World championship, and 4 European championships
Eurobasket
The EuroBasket, also referred to as the FIBA European Basketball Championship, is the main basketball competition contested biennially by the men's national teams governed by FIBA Europe, the European zone within the International Basketball Federation. The championship was first held in 1935 and...
.
Early life
Paspalj was born in PljevljaPljevlja
Pljevlja is a town and municipality located in the northern part of Montenegro. The city lies at an altitude of...
, SR Montenegro
Socialist Republic of Montenegro
Socialist Republic of Montenegro or SR Montenegro in shortened form, was a socialist state that was a constituent country in the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. It is a predecessor of the modern day Montenegro...
, in SFR Yugoslavia
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was the Yugoslav state that existed from the abolition of the Yugoslav monarchy until it was dissolved in 1992 amid the Yugoslav Wars. It was a socialist state and a federation made up of six socialist republics: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia,...
. His Serbian forester
Forestry
Forestry is the interdisciplinary profession embracing the science, art, and craft of creating, managing, using, and conserving forests and associated resources in a sustainable manner to meet desired goals, needs, and values for human benefit. Forestry is practiced in plantations and natural stands...
father Jovan from a small village on the slopes of Kozara
Kozara
Kozara is a mountain in western Bosnia and Herzegovina, in the Bosanska Krajina region. It is bounded by the rivers Sava - north, Vrbas - east, Sana - south and Una - west...
in Bosanska Krajina
Bosanska Krajina
Bosanska Krajina or Bosnian Frontier is a geographical region, a subregion of Bosnia, in western Bosnia and Herzegovina enclosed by three rivers - Sava, Una and Vrbas. It is also a historic, economic and cultural entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina....
moved to Pljevlja on business as he dealt in lumber trade. Once there he got married to a local woman Mileva and stayed on.
When young Žarko was 10 years old, his father moved the family to Titograd because he got a job there. Žarko took up basketball and soon distinguished himself in the youth system of KK Budućnost
KK Buducnost Podgorica
KK Budućnost Podgorica is a professional basketball club from Podgorica, Montenegro. It is a part of Budućnost Podgorica sport society. The team currently competes in First Montenegrin Opportunity League and regional Adriatic League...
.
Early days in Titograd
Žarko Paspalj began his pro career in 1982 when at age 16 he got moved up to Budućnost's first team where he was part of a talented generation alongside the likes of Zdravko RadulovićZdravko Radulovic
Zdravko Radulović is a retired Croatian basketball player. A 1.91 m shooting guard, he was a very prolific scorer, leading the Euroleague in scoring during the 1992-93 season with 23.9 ppg.Radulović has been a member of the Yugoslav national team...
and Luka Pavićević. Back then, Budućnost was a small, unambitious side that essentially served as talent feeder for bigger Yugoslav league clubs like Partizan
KK Partizan
Košarkaški klub Partizan is a Serbian professional basketball club. It is part of the multi-sports Belgrade-based club Partizan. The club competes in the Serbian League, Adriatic League and the Euroleague....
, Cibona
KK Cibona
Košarkaški klub Cibona is a professional basketball club based in Zagreb, Croatia. It competes in the Croatian League and the Adriatic League.-History:The club was founded in 1946 under the name Sloboda...
, Jugoplastika
KK Split
KK Split , KK Split CO for sponsorship relations is a basketball club from Split, Croatia. Currently, KK Split competes in the A-1 Liga and Krešimir Ćosić Cup.-History:...
, Red Star or even Bosna
KK Bosna
KK Bosna is a basketball club in Sarajevo the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The club is part of the University Sport Society USD Bosna...
.
Constantly in danger of relegation, Budućnost sometimes banked on more than just its own quality for top-league survival. There is an unconfirmed story that became a bit of local urban legend
Urban legend
An urban legend, urban myth, urban tale, or contemporary legend, is a form of modern folklore consisting of stories that may or may not have been believed by their tellers to be true...
from the early 1980s when Paspalj was a junior, about Cibona coming to Titograd for a late season game which was meaningless for Zagreb
Zagreb
Zagreb is the capital and the largest city of the Republic of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb lies at an elevation of approximately above sea level. According to the last official census, Zagreb's city...
side but crucial for Budućnost's hopes of remaining in top division. The story goes that a deal was struck between two sides to allow the home team to win, while in return Cibona management got to watch Budućnost's juniors practice and take whichever player they liked back to Zagreb. Knowing Paspalj was by far their best young prospect and an asset that would soon be worth a lot of money, Budućnost's club management wouldn't let him train for a few days, which meant that Cibona never saw him and picked another player.
Not too long after that, Paspalj entered the senior squad, contributing greatly to Budućnost's third place league finish in 1985/86 season and a playoff semi-final where they lost to eventual champions KK Zadar
KK Zadar
KK Zadar is a Croatian professional basketball team from the city of Zadar playing in the A-1 Liga.Zadar is the place where Croatian basketball was born in 1930. Zadar's reputation has been of a basketball hotbed with a team that can capture trophies at any given moment...
.
Partizan years
During summer of 1986 Budućnost sold 20-year-old Paspalj to Partizan BelgradeKK Partizan
Košarkaški klub Partizan is a Serbian professional basketball club. It is part of the multi-sports Belgrade-based club Partizan. The club competes in the Serbian League, Adriatic League and the Euroleague....
. Eighteen-year-old Vlade Divac
Vlade Divac
Vlade Divac is a retired Yugoslav and Serbian professional basketball player who spent most of his career in the NBA. At , he played center and was known for his passing skills...
, another rising star, also joined the club that summer from Sloga Kraljevo
KK Sloga
KK Sloga is a Serbian professional basketball club from Kraljevo, Serbia.The club competes in the Serbian League. The main club colour is white and because of that Sloga players are often nicknamed "Beli". Fans of KK Sloga are Kasapi and they also support football section of Sloga society - FK...
. Together with young Sasha Djordjevic, Željko Obradović
Željko Obradovic
Želimir “Željko” Obradović is a Serbian professional basketball coach and a former professional basketball player...
and more established players like Milenko Savović
Milenko Savović
Milenko Savović is a former basketball player. For most of his career, he was the captain of KK Partizan.-Honours:*Yugoslav league: 1979, 1981, 1987*Yugoslav cup: 1979, 1989*Korać Cup: 1978, 1979, 1989-References:*...
and Goran Grbović
Goran Grbović
Goran Grbović is a former Serbian professional basketball player.-Biography:Born in Kruševac, after finishing high school, he moved to Čačak. He started his career with KK Borac Čačak, where he was trained by the legendary Aleksandar Nikolić...
, they won the national title in a final against Red Star Belgrade
KK Crvena zvezda
Košarkaški klub Crvena zvezda is a professional basketball club based in Belgrade, Serbia. Its name Crvena zvezda means Red Star and it's part of the Red Star Belgrade sports society ....
. Paspalj played well enough to earn a spot on the national team of Yugoslavia that won the Bronze at the 1987 European Championships
Eurobasket 1987
The EuroBasket 1987 was held in Greece between June 3 and June 14, 1987. Twelve national teams entered the event under the auspices of FIBA Europe, the sport's regional governing body...
in Athens
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
, Greece. The following year, in 1988, he played a leading role in the side that made it to the Olympic final against the Soviet Union, and marked himself out as a potential star with some fine performances for Partizan at the 1988 McDonald's Open.
NBA stint
In 19891989-90 NBA season
-Statistics leaders:-NBA awards:*Most Valuable Player: Magic Johnson, Los Angeles Lakers*Rookie of the Year: David Robinson, San Antonio Spurs*Defensive Player of the Year: Dennis Rodman, Detroit Pistons...
Paspalj became one of the first Europeans to move to the NBA, joining the San Antonio Spurs
San Antonio Spurs
The San Antonio Spurs are an American professional basketball team based in San Antonio, Texas. They are part of the Southwest Division of the Western Conference in the National Basketball Association ....
despite going undrafted. He ended up with the Spurs due to Gregg Popovich
Gregg Popovich
Gregg Popovich is an American basketball coach, and is currently the head coach of the National Basketball Association's San Antonio Spurs. With the resignation of Jerry Sloan as head coach of the Utah Jazz on February 10, 2011, Popovich is the longest tenured coach in the NBA and also the...
, the team's assistant coach at the time, who met 23-year-old Paspalj at a warm-up tournament in Germany in July where the Yugoslav national team was preparing for Eurobasket 1989
EuroBasket 1989
-Group A:-Group B:-Places 5 - 8:-Places 1 - 4:-Finals:-Final rankings:# # # # # # # # -Team rosters:#Yugoslavia: Dražen Petrović, Toni Kukoč, Vlade Divac, Dino Rađa, Žarko Paspalj, Stojan Vranković, Predrag Danilović, Jure Zdovc, Zoran Čutura, Zdravko Radulović, Zoran Radović, Mario Primorac...
. Upon arriving to the United States, Paspalj even ended up living in Popovich's house for a few weeks as he acclimatized to the new surroundings.
However, Paspalj's NBA move turned out to be far from successful as he featured in only 28 games, scoring a total of 72 points in 181 minutes (2.6 points and 6½ minutes per game) of action. He also drew the ire of head coach Larry Brown
Larry Brown (basketball)
Lawrence Harvey "Larry" Brown is an American basketball coach and former player. He most recently served as head coach of the National Basketball Association's Charlotte Bobcats....
by admitting he played "no defense, only offense." He also confessed a weakness for Pizza Hut
Pizza Hut
Pizza Hut is an American restaurant chain and international franchise that offers different styles of pizza along with side dishes including pasta, buffalo wings, breadsticks, and garlic bread....
and Marlboros. However, Paspalj did develop a cult following among fans, evidenced by the Terry Cummings
Terry Cummings
Robert Terrell "Terry" Cummings is a retired American professional basketball player who played in the National Basketball Association for 18 seasons as a power forward and occasional center.-College and NBA years:...
-penned song "The Mark of Zarko", which was sung to the tune of "The Mark of Zorro
Zorro
Zorro is a fictional character created in 1919 by New York-based pulp writer Johnston McCulley. The character has been featured in numerous books, films, television series, and other media....
." Eventually he was cut from the team three days before the 1990 NBA Playoffs
1990 NBA Playoffs
The 1990 NBA Playoffs was the postseason tournament of the National Basketball Association's 1989-1990 season. The tournament concluded with the Eastern Conference champion Detroit Pistons successfully defending their championship by beating the Western Conference champion Portland Trail Blazers...
started, as the team officials wanted to make roster room for veteran forward Mike Mitchell
Mike Mitchell (NBA)
Michael Anthony Mitchell was an American professional basketball player in the NBA from 1978 to 1990.Mitchell, who was born in Atlanta, played collegiately at Auburn University. He started his NBA career with the Cleveland Cavaliers, but played most of his career for the San Antonio Spurs....
.
Back in Partizan for a season
In 1990 Paspalj returned to Yugoslavia and to Partizan. There he became league's top-scorer in 1990-91 season, leading the team alongside Đorđević and Danilović to another Yugoslav league playoff final, but even a Rađa-less KK Split (Pop 84) team was too much. Nonetheless, the overall season performance earned Paspalj a high-profile transfer to Greek club OlympiakosOlympiacos BC
Olympiacos B.C. , also known simply as Olympiacos and Olympiacos Piraeus, is a Greek professional basketball club, part of Olympiacos CFP, based in Piraeus. The basketball club, founded in 1931, is one of the most successful in Greece and a traditional powerhouse in European competitions...
in the summer of 1991.
Olympiacos
In 1991-92 season Paspalj almost single-handedly inspired Olympiacos, a team that finished in 8th place in Greek league the previous year, to the play-off finals against PAOKPAOK BC
P.A.O.K. Thessaloniki B.C. is the professional basketball department of the Greek multi-sports club P.A.O.K., originally founded in 1926 and is based in Thessaloniki, Greece. The club has established a firm reputation in Greek sports, especially for its success in European leagues...
from Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki , historically also known as Thessalonica, Salonika or Salonica, is the second-largest city in Greece and the capital of the region of Central Macedonia as well as the capital of the Decentralized Administration of Macedonia and Thrace...
. Olympiakos lost 97-82, but Paspalj top-scored with 35 points on 8/9 free throws, 12/20 two-pointers and 1/2 three-pointers. During the season, Paspalj scored an average of 33.7 points per game. One of his best performances saw him score 46 points in a 94-83 victory over Panionios, on 11/14, 13/22, 3/5. Playing on a fairly modest squad led by head coach Giannis Ioannidis
Giannis Ioannidis
Giannis Ioannidis is a Greek New Democracy politician and a famous ex basketball coach. Ioannidis was born in Thessaloniki, and studied Agriculture in the Faculty of Geotechnical Sciences at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki...
, Paspalj was the go-to player in almost every match, capable of scoring from almost any angle and distance with his outside shooting a particularly deadly weapon in his arsenal. However PAOK
PAOK BC
P.A.O.K. Thessaloniki B.C. is the professional basketball department of the Greek multi-sports club P.A.O.K., originally founded in 1926 and is based in Thessaloniki, Greece. The club has established a firm reputation in Greek sports, especially for its success in European leagues...
defeated Olympiacos for the title. On the national team front, Paspalj was denied the chance to participate in the 1992 Olympic Games
Basketball at the 1992 Summer Olympics
The Basketball games of the 1992 Summer Olympics were played at the Pavelló Olímpic de Badalona. 12 men's teams and 8 women's teams participated in the tournament....
in Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
due to the sanctions imposed on FR Yugoslavia
Fry
-Food and cooking:* Frying, the act of cooking food in oil or fat** Pan frying, frying food in a flat pan** Stir frying, frying food in a wok and stirring it while it cooks* Full breakfast, a traditional cooked meal, also called a fry-up or Ulster fry...
.
In his second season at Olympiacos, 1992–93, Paspalj benefited from a strengthened team (acquisitions of Walter Berry, Franko Nakić
Franko Nakic
Franko Nakić is a retired Greek–Croatian professional basketball player. He is the son of Mile Nakić who was a pro water polo coach.-Pro career:...
, Milan Tomić
Milan Tomic
Milan Tomić is a retired Serbian-Greek professional basketball player and now an assistant coach. Tomić spend most of his professional career in Greece after he took Greek nationality...
, and Dragan Tarlać
Dragan Tarlac
Dragan Tarlać is a retired Serbian / Greek professional basketball player. He played in the NBA. He is 2.11 m in height.-Europe:...
) and Olympiacos won the Greek Championship, defeating arch-rivals Panathinaikos in a controversial final series to claim their first championship since 1978. Paspalj played a crucial role in the triumph with a series of memorable matches against Aris in the play-off quarter-finals (when he scored 44 points - 9/10, 13/22, 3/4) and PAOK in the semi-finals. He also top-scored in the final series, all of which Olympiakos won without home advantage. Paspalj scored an average of 25 points per game, including a career-high 56 against Dafni on the opening day of the season in a game that Olympiakos remarkably lost 103-105, but he effectively cost his team a place in the Euroleague
Euroleague
Euroleague Basketball, commonly known as the Euroleague, is the highest level tier and most important professional club basketball competition in Europe, with teams from up to 18 different countries, members of FIBA Europe. For sponsorship reasons, for five seasons starting with 2010–2011, it is...
Final Four when he stepped over the line in the dying seconds of the crucial play-off match against Limoges of France.
The 1993/94 season saw Olympiacos crowned League and Cup double champions in Greece. However Paspalj's shooting statistics deteriorated alarmingly during the year as he became a far more erratic player, capable of only scoring in bursts or not at all. In particular his free-throw percentage nose-dived from 86% to under 50% and this led to a traumatic experience at the Euroleague
Euroleague
Euroleague Basketball, commonly known as the Euroleague, is the highest level tier and most important professional club basketball competition in Europe, with teams from up to 18 different countries, members of FIBA Europe. For sponsorship reasons, for five seasons starting with 2010–2011, it is...
Final Four in Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...
in April 1994, when Paspalj missed a crucial free throw with four seconds left as Olympiacos suffered a shock defeat in the final, 59-57 to Joventut Badalona
Joventut Badalona
Club Joventut Badalona, S.A.D. is a Spanish professional basketball club based in Badalona, Catalonia, playing in the Asociación de Clubs de Baloncesto . Known to their fans as La Penya , it is one of only three teams that have never been relegated from the top division of the Spanish League...
. Paspalj was voted the Euroleague Final Four MVP but the vote took place at half-time in the final, with Olympiacos seemingly headed for victory. However, although he added to his team-high of 22 points in the semi-final against Panathinaikos with another team-high 15 points in the final, all his points came in the first half, and he ended with 3 of 10 free-throw shooting, and later admitted to Greek television that he knew before he took the final free-throw, which he needed to score to have a chance of saving the match, that he would miss. This mental block would plague Paspalj for the remainder of his career. It transformed one of the European game's finest shooters into a centre-forward who relied on his experience, guile and skill on the fast break to penetrate opposing defenses. He remained an enormously talented player with a wealth of experience but lost something of the vitality and spontaneity of his earlier years when his outside shooting was often deadly effective.
In what would prove to be his final league appearance for Olympiakos, in the fifth playoff game against PAOK in 1994, Paspalj memorably rolled back the years as he scored 30 points to lead Olympiakos to a hard-fought 70-65 victory to take the series 3-2. Following a series of below-par performances in which his shooting percentage had dipped alarmingly, Paspalj memorably made 3/4 free throws, 12/20 two-point shots and hit a buzzer-beater three-pointer to close the first half. This consistent shooting was reminiscent of his first two, memorable, years, and contrasted sharply with the scenes at the end of Game 1 when, after having shot 1 from 7 from the free-throw line, Paspalj made two free throws in the final seconds to immense jubilation and celebration from the stands.
Panathinaikos
In August 1994 Paspalj caused a sensation by transferring to bitter Athenian rivals Panathinaikos BC. Relations between Paspalj and the Olympiakos leadership had deteriorated during the summer and his departure to their arch-rivals infuriated Olympiakos fans who subsequently turned on their former hero and hounded him whenever the two teams met. This initially intimidated Paspalj, as chance had it that his first game for Panathinaikos was against Olympiakos in the Greek Cup, played at the neutral stadium of Sporting. There, in a cramped arena filled with passionate fans of both teams, he played one of the worst, most nerve-wracked games of his career, and finished with 3 points (1/2, 1/11, 0/1) as Panathinaikos won a terrible game 42-40. By contrast, a month later, an inspired Paspalj, in his first league appearance against Olympiakos, memorably began the game with three consecutive 3-pointers in the opening minute, though he subsequently faded as his team lost 65-67.However the move across town couldn't hide the flaws in Paspalj's game and his shot continued to deteriorate. His free throw percentage dipped still further and in many games was well below 50%, while three-point shots became a rarity. He was the top-scorer for his new team with 19 points per game but failed to lift them beyond second place in the Greek League and the semi-finals of the Euroleague, when in both cases Panathinaikos was defeated by Olympiakos, which made even the Panathinaikos fans disillusioned with him.
This was evident during the 1995 European Basketball Championships
Eurobasket
The EuroBasket, also referred to as the FIBA European Basketball Championship, is the main basketball competition contested biennially by the men's national teams governed by FIBA Europe, the European zone within the International Basketball Federation. The championship was first held in 1935 and...
held in Athens, when fans of both clubs jeered him, although a huge chunk of their dissatisfaction could be attributed to Paspalj being the captain of the powerhouse Yugoslav squad that just ended Greek hopes of winning the title on home soil in an emotionally charged semi-final. Lifting that trophy in front of the Athens crowd served as huge vindication and confidence boost for Paspalj after a couple of tough seasons, and the release of tension was evident in his jubilant locker-room interview with Vassilis Skountis when Paspalj ebulliently joined in with the chant (meant ironically in this instance as he was clutching the trophy in his arms) that "You will never lift the Cup, Paspalj, Paspalj!"
Panionios
Paspalj moved on in late summer of 1995 and began the new season with Panionios BCPanionios Forthnet
Panionios B.C. is the Greek professional basketball club that plays its home games in Nea Smyrni, Athens, Greece. The club is also widely known as Πανιώνιος Γυμναστικός Σύλλογος Σμύρνης, or Panionios Gymnastikos Syllogos Smyrnis, which is the Pan-Ionian Gymnastic Association of Smyrna. This is...
, also of Athens. This was a smaller club that had regularly over-achieved, and it had the good fortune of being led by the great Dušan Ivković
Dušan Ivkovic
Dušan "Duda" Ivković is a Serbian former professional basketball player and current coach. In 2008, he was named one of the 10 Greatest Coaches in Euroleague history....
who knew Paspalj well from coaching him in the national team. Ivkovic became a father-figure to Paspalj and improved his self-confidence and his general game, and Paspalj inspired Panionios BC
Panionios Forthnet
Panionios B.C. is the Greek professional basketball club that plays its home games in Nea Smyrni, Athens, Greece. The club is also widely known as Πανιώνιος Γυμναστικός Σύλλογος Σμύρνης, or Panionios Gymnastikos Syllogos Smyrnis, which is the Pan-Ionian Gymnastic Association of Smyrna. This is...
to third place in the league with a series of fine performances indicating that after two lean years he was nearing his peak once more. In one performance against Sporting he scored 42 points (11/16, 14/19, 1/2), his highest since his second year at Olympiacos, while in a KORAC Cup match against Borovica he hit 36 on 8/9 free throws and 14/18 two-point attempts. Throughout the season his shooting became more confident and he gradually regained his ability to hit outside shots. This culminated in a match against Iraklio in 1996, when despite missing his first free-throw attempt he hit the next 15, something that would have been routine in 1991 and 1992 but unthinkable in 1994 and 1995.
This was evident in both the semi-final of the A1 Playoffs, when he nearly led his team past Panathinaikos, and in the 3rd place playoff, when he led Panionios to a 3-0 sweep of PAOK with 27, 26 and 17 points.
1996 Olympics, another shot at NBA, and France
The rediscovered confidence and form became evident at the 1996 Olympic GamesBasketball at the 1996 Summer Olympics
Basketball contests at the 1996 Olympic Games were held from July 20, 1996 to August 4, 1996. Games took place at the Morehouse College Gymnasium and the Georgia Dome. For the second straight Olympic games, the American men's team composed almost entirely of NBA players won the gold medal...
in Atlanta, when 30-year-old Paspalj scored 16 points in the first half of the final against the Dream Team as Yugoslavia only trailed 38-43 at halftime. He faded in the second half along with entire Yugoslavia team but still ended up a top scorer with 19 points, leaving a good impression that prompted Atlanta Hawks
Atlanta Hawks
The Atlanta Hawks are an American professional basketball team based in Atlanta, Georgia. They are part of the Southeast Division of the Eastern Conference in the National Basketball Association .-The first years:...
to invite him to pre-season training camp in September. This came after Paspalj very nearly rejoined Olympiacos, now managed by his former Panionios mentor Ivkovic - a move that would have delighted most fans of the Piraeus club, who still retained tremendous affection for Paspalj's achievement in raising the club into the powerhouse of Europe, despite his subsequent move to Panathinaikos. His stay in Atlanta, however, was even shorter than his tenure with the Spurs. A week into camp, he relinquished the guaranteed clause in his contract and returned to Europe because of family problems. The return to the NBA thus fell through and it was soon discovered that the reason for his abrupt return home were the revelations of an extramarital affair with a woman in Athens.
Paspalj spent the 1996/97 season in Paris, playing for PSG Racing Basket
Paris Basket Racing
Paris Basket Racing, or PBR, is a now-defunct French professional basketball club from Paris. It was founded in the year 1922 as the basketball section of the sports club Racing Club de Paris. The team took the name "Paris Basket Racing" in 2000....
and leading the club to its first national title in 43 years.
Back to Greece: Aris Thessaloniki
Paspalj returned to Greece, his second home, for the 1997/98 season and signed for Aris ThessalonikiAris BC
Aris Basketball Club is the professional basketball team of the Thessaloniki-based Greek sport club Aris Thessaloniki. Aris BC was founded in 1922, eight years after the founding of Aris Thessaloniki....
. This grand old club throughout the 1980s, had fallen on hard times, and was about to embark on one of the most difficult seasons of its history. Paspalj had some memorable performances in the autumn of 1997, including a game against PAOK when he steered Aris to victory with 20 points (2/2, 9/11). He also played particularly well against his old clubs, Olympiakos and Panathinaikos, and began scoring once again with three-point shots as in his heyday in the early 1990s. In February 1998 Paspalj, playing injured, led his team to victory in the Greek Cup but the majority of his team-mates left the club the following day after having gone without payment for some time. Paspalj remained, but an injury meant that he did not play again that season as Aris alarmingly dropped down the table and narrowly avoided relegation to the A2 league.
One last professional stint in Bologna
In the summer of 1998 Paspalj secured a move to the newly-crowned European champions, Virtus (Kinder) BolognaVirtus Bologna
-Notable players: Marco Bonamico 9 seasons: '75-'76, '77-'78, '80-'86, '88-'89 Carlo Caglieris 6 seasons: '75-'81 Pietro Generali 6 seasons: '75-'76, '78-'83 Gianni Bertolotti 5 seasons: '75-'80 Terry Driscoll 3 seasons: '75-'78 Eric Luc Leclerc 1 season: '75-'76 Luigi Serafini 2 seasons: '75-'77...
. However, effects of past injuries and years of chain-smoking caught up with him and he was cut from the team in December after a series of undistinguished performances. During this period he had one final appearance in front of his old Olympiakos fans, in a Euroleague game in October 1998, scoring 2 points (0/2 1/5). The tragedy for basketball was that a player of his caliber was lost to the sport at the age of 32, but for Paspalj himself a personal near-tragedy was still to come.
Summing up his 14 and a half seasons in professional basketball, Paspalj is remembered for a successful globetrotting career that included a multitude of trophies and individual awards. Perhaps the single most memorable aspect of his game is the off-balance, unorthodox sling-style shooting technique he perfected — a move that served him so well in the first part of his career, but deserted him later on.
Club level
- 1986/87 Yugoslav League champion with KK PartizanKK PartizanKošarkaški klub Partizan is a Serbian professional basketball club. It is part of the multi-sports Belgrade-based club Partizan. The club competes in the Serbian League, Adriatic League and the Euroleague....
- 1988/89 Korać CupKorac CupThe Korać Cup was an annual basketball club competition held by FIBA between the 1971-72 and 2001-02 seasons. It was the third-tier level club competition in European basketball, after the European Champions' Cup and the Cup Winners' Cup...
winner with KK Partizan - 1988/89 Yugoslav National Cup winner with KK Partizan
- 1992/93 Greek LeagueA1 EthnikiThe Greek Basket League , commonly referred to as the Greek Basketball League or Greek Basketball Championship, is the highest professional basketball league in Greece. It is run by HEBA...
champion with OlympiacosOlympiacos BCOlympiacos B.C. , also known simply as Olympiacos and Olympiacos Piraeus, is a Greek professional basketball club, part of Olympiacos CFP, based in Piraeus. The basketball club, founded in 1931, is one of the most successful in Greece and a traditional powerhouse in European competitions... - 1993/94 Greek League champion with Olympiacos
- 1993/94 Greek National CupGreek basketball CupThe Greek Basketball Cup or Hellenic Basketball Cup is an annual pro basketball national cup competition. It is organized by the Hellenic Basketball Federation .-History and format:...
winner with Olympiacos - 1996/97 French LeagueLigue Nationale de BasketballThe Ligue National de Basket is the top men's French professional basketball league. There are two divisions: French Pro A League and French Pro B League .-Pro A:...
champion with PSG Racing BasketParis Basket RacingParis Basket Racing, or PBR, is a now-defunct French professional basketball club from Paris. It was founded in the year 1922 as the basketball section of the sports club Racing Club de Paris. The team took the name "Paris Basket Racing" in 2000.... - 1997/98 Greek National Cup winner with Aris ThessalonikiAris BCAris Basketball Club is the professional basketball team of the Thessaloniki-based Greek sport club Aris Thessaloniki. Aris BC was founded in 1922, eight years after the founding of Aris Thessaloniki....
Paspalj also participated in Euroleague
Euroleague
Euroleague Basketball, commonly known as the Euroleague, is the highest level tier and most important professional club basketball competition in Europe, with teams from up to 18 different countries, members of FIBA Europe. For sponsorship reasons, for five seasons starting with 2010–2011, it is...
Final Fours on three occasions with three different teams. In 1988 he was part of the young Partizan squad that came in third. In 1994, he led Olympiacos
Olympiacos BC
Olympiacos B.C. , also known simply as Olympiacos and Olympiacos Piraeus, is a Greek professional basketball club, part of Olympiacos CFP, based in Piraeus. The basketball club, founded in 1931, is one of the most successful in Greece and a traditional powerhouse in European competitions...
to the final but couldn't make the last step. The very next season he was there again, this time with Panathinaikos, but they finished third.
National team level
- Eurobasket 1989EuroBasket 1989-Group A:-Group B:-Places 5 - 8:-Places 1 - 4:-Finals:-Final rankings:# # # # # # # # -Team rosters:#Yugoslavia: Dražen Petrović, Toni Kukoč, Vlade Divac, Dino Rađa, Žarko Paspalj, Stojan Vranković, Predrag Danilović, Jure Zdovc, Zoran Čutura, Zdravko Radulović, Zoran Radović, Mario Primorac...
Champion - 1990 FIBA World Champion1990 FIBA World ChampionshipThe 1990 FIBA World Championship was an international basketball competition hosted by Argentina from August 8 to August 20, 1990.The competition final phase was held at the Luna Park, Buenos Aires.Yugoslavia emerged as the tournament winner...
- Eurobasket 1991EuroBasket 1991Eurobasket 1991 was the tournament contested by men's professional basketball teams from Europe. It was hosted by Italy.-Group A:-Group B:-Places 5 - 8:-Places 1 - 4:-Finals:-Final rankings:# # # # # # # # -Team rosters:...
Champion - Eurobasket 1995EuroBasket 1995EuroBasket 1995 final tournament stage was XXIX European basketball championship and was held in Athens, Greece from 21 June to 2 July, 1995. This European championship was the first one that saw the successful return of Lithuania national basketball team to the tournament, since its last triumph...
Champion
In addition, Paspalj won two Olympic silver medals (in Basketball at the 1988 Summer Olympics
Basketball at the 1988 Summer Olympics
Basketball at the 1988 Summer Olympics took place at the Jamsil Gymnasium in Seoul, South Korea. The United States won the gold medal in the women's competition, thus repeating their performance from the 1984 tournament. In the men's tournament, the Soviet Union took home their second gold medal in...
, and Basketball at the 1996 Summer Olympics
Basketball at the 1996 Summer Olympics
Basketball contests at the 1996 Olympic Games were held from July 20, 1996 to August 4, 1996. Games took place at the Morehouse College Gymnasium and the Georgia Dome. For the second straight Olympic games, the American men's team composed almost entirely of NBA players won the gold medal...
), as well as a bronze at Eurobasket 1987
Eurobasket 1987
The EuroBasket 1987 was held in Greece between June 3 and June 14, 1987. Twelve national teams entered the event under the auspices of FIBA Europe, the sport's regional governing body...
.
Heart problems
In March 2001, Paspalj, just shy of his 35th birthday, suffered a serious heart attackMyocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
while playing recreational football in Athens, and was hospitalized for several weeks. He suffered a second heart attack in July 2001, but battled to regain his health through surgery followed by a long process of hospitalization that lasted all throughout 2002.
In the fall of 2005, during a discussion on RTS
Radio Television of Serbia
Radio Television of Serbia or Serbian Broadcasting Corporation is the public broadcaster in Serbia. It broadcasts and produces a variety of news, drama, and sports programming through radio, television and the Internet. RTS is, since July 2001, a member of the European Broadcasting Union. RTS is...
television's Ključ
Kljuc (talk show)
Ključ was a weekly panel show that aired from 2004 until 2009 on RTS - Serbia's public broadcaster. Hosted by Nataša Miljković, the show debut on May 20, 2004...
programme regarding coronary issues, he stated that two heart attacks weren't enough to force him into quitting smoking or into substantially changing his lifestyle.
In a November 2007 interview on the same television (Balkanskom ulicom programme) he admitted to still smoking, but added he cut back on it significantly and is in the process of phasing it out completely.
Role on the Serbia-Montenegro bench
In the early 2004 he became team manager for the Serbia-Montenegro national squad, working under head coach Željko ObradovićŽeljko Obradovic
Želimir “Željko” Obradović is a Serbian professional basketball coach and a former professional basketball player...
who just came back to the national team after being away for four years. The most important aspect of Paspalj's job was helping create the right atmosphere by acting as a liaison between the head coach and the players. The thinking was that such a well-liked former player would have a soothing effect on the damaged inter-squad relations. Paspalj was also entrusted with the role of convincing different players, especially ones from the NBA
National Basketball Association
The National Basketball Association is the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in North America. It consists of thirty franchised member clubs, of which twenty-nine are located in the United States and one in Canada...
, to come play for the national team.
Unfortunately, his time at the post coincided with two of the team's worst performances in recent history as S&M finished 11th (out of 12 squads) at the 2004 Athens Olympics
Basketball at the 2004 Summer Olympics
Basketball at the 2004 Summer Olympics took place at the Helliniko Olympic Indoor Arena in Athens, Greece for the preliminary rounds, with the latter stages being held in the Olympic Indoor Hall at the Athens Olympic Sports Complex....
and then failed to reach the quarter-finals of the 2005 European Championships
Eurobasket 2005
The EuroBasket 2005 was held in Serbia and Montenegro between 16 September and 25 September 2005. Greece won the gold medal by defeating Germany, while France won the bronze medal over Spain...
held on home soil in Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
. He resigned after the second failure, citing health reasons and a desire to spend more time with his wife and daughters.
Paspalj the businessman
Paspalj also decided to try his hand at business by investing heavily in the ambitious Aqua Park project in New Belgrade's Blok 44. The construction started in fall 2005 and the project is still ongoing at a huge site near Sava riverSava River
The Sava is a river in Southeast Europe, a right side tributary of the Danube river at Belgrade. Counting from Zelenci, the source of Sava Dolinka, it is long and drains of surface area. It flows through Slovenia, Croatia, along the northern border of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and through Serbia....
.
Initial projection of a summer 2006 opening turned out to be too optimistic, so, according to Paspalj, the new target for grand opening moved to the summer of 2007, however even that wasn't to be. He eventually pulled out of the venture in December 2007, which is when the project was taken over by Novi Sad
Novi Sad
Novi Sad is the capital of the northern Serbian province of Vojvodina, and the administrative centre of the South Bačka District. The city is located in the southern part of Pannonian Plain on the Danube river....
based Genel company.
Serbian Olympic Committee
In February 2009, after Vlade DivacVlade Divac
Vlade Divac is a retired Yugoslav and Serbian professional basketball player who spent most of his career in the NBA. At , he played center and was known for his passing skills...
won the presidency of the Serbian Olympic Committee, he also appointed Paspalj to be his second in command.