Žarko Paspalj
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Medals
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Žarko Paspalj (
Paspalj was a
Early life
Paspalj's forester father Jovan's lumber trade job took him from his home village on the slopes of Kozara in Bosanska Krajina to Pljevlja, finding employment at the Velimir Jakić Lumber Processing Plant (ŠIK Velimir Jakić). Once there he married a local woman, Mileva, and remained.[1] Their first child, son Darko, was born in 1961, five years before Žarko was born in 1966.[1]
During the mid-1970s, when young Žarko was ten years old, his father's job requirements moved the family to
He considers himself an ethnic
Club career
Early days in Titograd
Paspalj began his career in 1982. At 16 he moved up to Budućnost's first team where he was part of a talented generation alongside
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 the 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 therefore picked another player.
Not too long after that, Paspalj entered the senior squad. Playing under young head coach Milutin Petrović and alongside seasoned Yugoslav League players such as Nikola Antić and the Ivanović brothers (Duško and Dragan), the talented youngster contributed greatly to Budućnost's third place league finish in the 1985–86 season and a playoff semi-final where they lost to eventual champions Zadar.
Partizan years
During the summer of 1986 Budućnost sold 20-year-old Paspalj to
Season in the NBA
In the summer of 1989, Paspalj became one of the first Europeans to move to the NBA, joining the
Paspalj came to the Spurs courtesy of the team's assistant coach
In 2015, Paspalj recalled his final few summer 1989 days in Yugoslavia before setting off for the U.S.:
I remember being down in
Jugoplastika, and me, the starting small forward of the EuroBasket-winning national team, playing two-on-two against Slađan Stojković and Aleksa Milošević—and those two were kicking our asses, we couldn't score five points on them. So, during a break, I go to Luka: 'Listen, these NBA guys want me. I'm going to Belgrade the day after tomorrow to pack my stuff and then the following day I'm off to San Antonio'. His response was not enthusiastic at all, I mean he used to play college ball in the States, in Utah, so he already knew how basketball things work there. He told me: 'I'm not sure that's a good move for you at all. You know, they have their own way of doing things and they drafted some Elliott guy very high and he plays exactly your position'. But nothing could deter me, I was full of confidence and I told Luka: 'What the fuck do I care about Elliott, whoever he is. Whichever one of the two of us is better will play and that's it'. And Luka just looked at me and said: 'That's not exactly how things work over there. He's a third pick from the draft. He comes from a good university. I'm not sure you'll be getting much of a chance to play there. Think things through again'. But I wasn't about to think anything through and I just jumped on a Pan Am flight, directly from Belgrade to New York and then a connecting one to San Antonio. But I would soon recall Luka's words on many different occasions during my season with the Spurs.[8]
1989–90 season
Upon arriving to the United States in early July 1989, months before the other four Europeans,
Once the season started, Paspalj found himself relegated to the role of 21-year-old rookie
Paspalj got cut from the team three days before the
Summing up his season with the Spurs and life in the United States, Paspalj remarked in 2015:
Back in 1989,
Yugoslavia and Soviet Union let alone more nuanced subtleties: to them more or less everything coming from Eastern Europe fell into one blanket category — Soviet-style communism. But regardless of that, in everyday encounters I never felt uncomfortable for even a second. All the people I interacted with — teammates, neighbours, etc. — were great to me. Not a trace of xenophobia of any kind. Looking back on the things I learned and people I met while over there, it was a fantastic experience in every way except the most important thing — I didn't get to play.[8]
The 1989–90 season did have a golden lining for Paspalj as he was an integral part of the Yugoslav team which took gold at the Goodwill Games in Seattle, beating the United States in the final, and at the World Championships in Argentina, with Paspalj leading all scorers in the final against the Soviet Union with 20 points.
Back in Partizan for a season
In 1990 Paspalj returned home to Partizan. The club, much like the player, was coming off an extremely poor season in which they failed to earn a European spot. Also returning, following an unsuccessful season of his own in Spain, was Paspalj's mentor Duško Vujošević. Seen as a reunion from a few years earlier, but this time without the rigours of competing in Europe, the season was shaping up as the one in which Partizan could finally overcome its Jugoplastika hex after the Split club was left without its talismanic coach Boža Maljković and its key player Dino Rađa.
Paspalj became the league's top-scorer for 1990–91, leading the team alongside 23-year-old Đorđević and 20-year-old Danilović to the second-place regular season finish and then another playoff final where the old nemesis Split (now renamed Pop 84) awaited. Still, even a Rađa-less Pop 84 team was too much as it swept Partizan 3-0. Nonetheless, the overall season performance earned Paspalj a high-profile transfer to Greek club Olympiacos in the late summer of 1991.
Olympiacos
Paspalj's signing for the Piraeus club was a direct consequence of its takeover by the Greek businessman and investor Sokratis Kokkalis. Throwing his considerable financial means behind the operation, the magnate wanted to turn Olympiacos, a club that hadn't won the Greek title since 1978, languishing in mediocrity for years, into a European power. Also signing the same summer was head coach Giannis Ioannidis who had dominated Greek basketball throughout the 1980s, winning seven national titles as head coach of Aris along with several EuroLeague Final Four appearances. Paspalj's arrival to Athens in September 1991, just over two months after helping the Yugoslav national team successfully defend its EuroBasket title, received major attention in the city with many Olympiacos fans greeting him at Ellinikon Airport. Being the first foreign superstar to join the Greek league, the 25-year-old's arrival was seen by many as the harbinger of a new era for Greek club basketball.[12]
1991–92 season
In the 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
1992–93 season
In his second season at Olympiacos, 1992–93, Paspalj benefited from a strengthened team (acquisitions of
1993–94 season
During the summer 1993 transfer window, Olympiacos brought in
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 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
In what would prove to be his final Greek League appearance for Olympiacos, in the fifth playoff game against
Paspalj was asked many times to account for the sudden and dramatic loss of his shooting confidence and while he was unable to pinpoint any one cause, remarking on one occasion that the shot was a mechanism that he done for years without any problems until he began to miss regularly and question himself in the act of shooting, it is clear from television footage that his posture on shooting shifted significantly and, for reasons unknown, his unorthodox swing-shot became far more pronounced in the later, more erratic years of his career. However, Paspalj, in 1995, said that he never watched television footage of games he played in, and acknowledged that had been a mistake, as somewhere he had gone wrong in the act of shooting.
Season with Panathinaikos
In August 1994 Paspalj caused a sensation by transferring to bitter Athenian rivals Panathinaikos. Relations between Paspalj and the Olympiakos leadership had deteriorated during the summer and his departure to their arch-rivals infuriated Olympiacos fans. Arriving to the club hungry for trophies and financed by the Giannakopoulous brothers' pharmaceutical business, his signing was seen as a big coup for Panathinaikos – not only were the greens getting a marquee player in the prime of his career, but at the same time they also managed to weaken their biggest rival by luring away their best player. Therefore, the expectations were also big – success in both the domestic league and the EuroLeague was paramount. Coming into the squad that featured head coach Efthimis Kioumourtzoglou, Nikos Galis, Panagiotis Giannakis, Stojko Vranković, Miroslav Pecarski, Tiit Sokk, Aivar Kuusmaa, Kostas Patavoukas, Fragiskos Alvertis and Nikos Oikonomou, Paspalj was seen as the ingredient capable of leading the team to big trophies.
Predictably, Olympiacos fans immediately 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 Olympiacos in the Greek Cup, played at the neutral venue – Sporting's indoor hall that at the time barely seated 1,500 people. 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 5 points (1/2, 2/11, 0/1) as Panathinaikos won a terrible game 42–40. By contrast, a month later, an inspired Paspalj, in his first league appearance against Olympiacos, 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, with just one three-pointer from eight attempts in the entire EuroLeague season. 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 Olympiacos, which made even the Panathinaikos fans disillusioned with him. The return league game against Olympiacos, which Panathinaikos won 74–72 away from home, typified Paspalj's up-and-down season, as he began brightly with 8 points in the opening minutes, faded and remained scoreless until the last minute of the game, then scored the last five points that steered Panathinaikos to victory, but missed a free throw with 3 seconds remaining that ultimately cost his team the head-to-head record that gave Olympiacos the crucial home court advantage throughout the play-offs. Paspalj's performances in the five-game playoff final series with Olympiacos were particularly disappointing, as although he scored 21 and 19 points in games 2 and 4 (when Panathinaikos played at home), he hit just 18 points in the three games played on Olympiacos territory, including 4 points in game 3 and just 2 points in the decisive game 5, which Panathinaikos lost 45–44.
This was evident during the
Panionios
Paspalj moved on in late summer of 1995 and after rumors of a move to Real Madrid proved unfounded, began the new season with
This was evident in both the semi-final of the A1 Playoffs, when he nearly led his team past Panathinaikos ending the three game series with 100% shooting from the free-throw line (4/4, 3/3, and 4/4), and in the 3rd place playoff, when he led Panionios to a 3–0 sweep of PAOK with 27, 26 and 17 points.
1996–97 season
Aborted move to Atlanta Hawks
Paspalj had a very eventful summer in 1996. The rediscovered confidence and form became evident at the 1996 Olympic Games 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 Ivković – 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 considered giving up basketball in the autumn of 1996 and took a break from the sport for several months to give his body a chance to recover from years of non-stop wear and tear.
Racing Paris
Paspalj would sign with Racing Paris, joining the squad featuring France national team regulars Stéphane Risacher and Richard Dacoury, former NBA players J. R. Reid and Sedale Threatt as well as Paspalj's old Yugoslav national teammate Jure Zdovc. Paspalj spent the 1996–97 season in Paris, leading the club to its first national title in 43 years. During this period, he averaged 12 points per game and shot over 80 percent from the free throw line, indicating that his shooting confidence was returning.
Back to Greece: Aris
Paspalj returned to Greece, his second home, for the 1997–98 season and signed for Aris. 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.
His return to the A1 League was marked by an excellent performance against Larissa, scoring 23 points on 5/6, 6/13, 2/3, suggesting that Paspalj had regained his shooting confidence. Paspalj's free throw shooting, in particular, was more consistent than at any time since the dramatic deterioration of his statistics in 1994. Paspalj had some memorable performances in the autumn of 1997, including 18 points (6/6, 6/9) in a 63–56 home victory over Panathinaikos, and a game against PAOK when he steered Aris to victory with 20 points (2/2, 9/11) in the first round and another stellar performance in the second round of the championship. He also played particularly well against his old clubs, Olympiacos and Panathinaikos, and began scoring once again with three-point shots as in his heyday in the early 1990s. Two three-pointers against PAOK in the return game, which Aris also won, proved the point, as Paspalj dominated his young compatriot, Peja Stojaković, who was about to leave Greece for a stellar career in the NBA. Against Olympiacos, at a time when Aris was in economic crisis and many of its players had left the club, Paspalj top-scored 23 points (with 11/15 free throws) as he steered the team to a memorable 82–76 victory. He scored a season-high 26 points in a Korać Cup game early in December 1997. In February 1998 Paspalj, playing injured, led his team to victory in the Greek Cup, scoring 12 points (2/5, 5/10) but the majority of his teammates 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 after mid-February as Aris alarmingly dropped down the table and narrowly avoided relegation to the A2 league. His final two performances in the Greek League for Aris came in a 101–59 point humbling at Peristeri when he finished with 4 points, followed by a 72–49 win over Sporting in which he ended with 6 points, and in his last game for the club (in the Korać Cup) he ended with 18 points (8/10, 4/10, 0/4) in a defeat in Rome.
One last professional stint in Bologna
In the summer of 1998 Paspalj secured a move to the newly crowned European champions,
Summing up his 14+1⁄2 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.
An interview with Paspalj in November 2015 for a Greek television station elicited a deluge of messages from viewers who continued to recall Paspalj with tremendous affection two decades later. Paspalj returned to Piraeus and his old Olympiakos home in September 2017 to attend a benefit game in honor of the legendary Yugoslav coach Dusan Ikvovic, and received a rapturous welcome from fans of his former club.
National team career
Youth
Talented Paspalj, playing in Budućnost's youth categories at the time, got his first taste of the Yugoslav national team system as a 17-year-old when in summer 1983 he got picked by head coach
A year later, 18-year-old Paspalj was picked again by Halilović, this time for the 1984 European Championship for Juniors in Huskvarna and Katrineholm, Sweden. Playing on a team alongside old national cadet teammates Mavrenski, Pavićević, Zdovc, Nakić, and Pecarski as well as new teammates Zoran Jovanović, Velimir Perasović, Mirko Milićević, Franjo Arapović, and Ivica Žurić, Paspalj starred again. The team won bronze by beating Spain after losing the semifinal versus the Soviet Union by 19 points.
Achievements and awards
Club level
Partizan
- FIBA Korać Cup (1): 1988–89
- Yugoslav League (1): 1986–87
- Yugoslav Cup (1): 1988–89
Olympiacos
- Greek League (2): 1992–93, 1993–94
- Greek Cup (1): 1993–94
Racing Paris
- French League(1): 1996–97
Aris
- Greek Cup (1): 1997–98
- 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 place. In 1994, he led Olympiacos to the final, but couldn't make the last step. The very next season (1995), he was there again, this time with Panathinaikos, but they finished in third place.
National team level
- 1989 EuroBasket: Gold
- 1990 FIBA World Championship: Gold
- 1991 EuroBasket: Gold
- 1995 EuroBasket: Gold
- In addition, Paspalj won two Olympic silver medals (1987 EuroBasket.
Post-playing
Health issues
In March 2001, over two years since retiring from playing professional basketball and just shy of his 35th birthday, Paspalj suffered a mild
By own admission, Paspalj completely ignored the doctor's advice,
In October 2005, during a discussion on RTS television's Ključ programme regarding coronary issues,[17] 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, though adding he cut back on it significantly and is in the process of phasing it out completely.
In November 2017, Paspalj was reported to have suffered a stroke while visiting San Antonio. After spending some time in hospital, Paspalj moved to the home of San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, where he was visited by his former teammate Vlade Divac, who reported that the worst had passed but that Paspalj was only beginning to communicate again.
Role on the Serbia-Montenegro bench
In the early 2004 he became team manager for the
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.
Business ventures
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.
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.[18]
Serbian Olympic Committee
In February 2009, after Vlade Divac won the presidency of the Serbian Olympic Committee, he appointed Paspalj to be his second in command.[19]
See also
References
- ^ a b c d e f Nikolić, Aleksandar (18 October 2009). "Nisam mogao da se naviknem na Ameriku". Blic. Retrieved 9 July 2016.
- ^ новости, Вечерње. "Вечерње новости: Жарко Паспаљ: Срби и Црногорци су један народ; Природно је да се изјашњавам као Србин из Црне Горе". Нова српска политичка мисао (in Serbian). Retrieved 2019-09-11.
- ^ Новости (2016-01-25). "Паспаљ: Природно је да се изјашњавам као Србин из Црне Горе". ИН4С (in Serbian). Retrieved 2019-09-11.
- ^ a b "Žarko Paspalj ponovo u bolnici". srbija.gov.rs. 6 July 2001. Retrieved 9 July 2016.
- ^ a b c d e f g Ludden, J. (30 September 2006). "Global discoveries: Spurs serve as pioneers in scouting European talent". San Antonio Express-News. Archived from the original on 16 April 2015. Retrieved 11 May 2023.
- ^ a b Many Happy Returns;Sports Illustrated, 6 November 1989
- ^ a b It's a Different World, but NBA's Imports Make Progress;Los Angeles Times, 25 February 1990
- ^ a b c d e f Jovanović, Miloš (9 April 2015). "Žarko Paspalj, naš čovek u srcu Teksasa i NBA". Vice Srbija. Retrieved 12 April 2015.
- ^ a b Šotra, Danilo (October 1989). "Obračun kod "OK Ko...ša" (page 18)". Koš magazin. Retrieved 26 August 2022.
- ^ a b c Antonović, Rade (April 2022). "Sport Kakav Pamtimo EP 25: Duško Vujošević (timestamp: 01:21:53)". Sport Klub. Retrieved 4 May 2022.
- ^ It's a Different World, but NBA's Imports Make Progress;Los Angeles Times, 25 February 1990
- ^ Zarko Paspalj, the man who changed the Greek League;EuroLeague, 2 December 2012
- ^ "Paspalj se oporavlja od srčanog udara". srbija.gov.rs. 6 March 2001. Retrieved 9 July 2016.
- ^ "Zarko Paspalj Returned Home Safe". BeoBasket. 14 March 2001. Retrieved 9 July 2016.
- ^ "Paspalj ponovo u bolnici". Telebasket. B92.net. 19 June 2002. Retrieved 9 July 2016.
- ^ "Zarko Paspalj ponovo u bolnici!". Beta. B92.net. 20 August 2002. Retrieved 9 July 2016.
- ^ SRČANI UDAR – GENOCID NAD SRBIMA
- ^ "Akva park" od maja;Press (in Serbian)
- ^ NEMA LEBA OD ĆUTANJA, Kurir, June 6, 2009
- S Milkom zauvek, Ilustrovana Politika (issue# 2336), October 25, 2003
- "Paspalj: Akva park sigurno 2007!", Press, May 30, 2006