101 Greats of European Basketball

signed with Partizan in 1986, made the best decision of
his career. In Greece, he became a real god on the court.
Olympiacos had finished the previous season in eighth
place, and so to build a new team with high ambitions, the
best thing to do was to sign a great player. Paspalj obliged
with a brilliant season. He was the best scorer in the country,
with an average of 33.7 points, and took Olympiacos
to the Greek League finals, although PAOK Thessaloniki
won the title. In his second year with the Reds, he led the
team to its first league title in 15 years. Paspalj was the
best player on a great team with Walter Berry, Dragan Tarlac,
Panagiotis Fasoulas, Giorgos Sigalas and Milan Tomic.
Against Aris, Paspalj scored 44 points, but his Greek
League record was 56 points against Dafni.
In the 1993-94 season, Olympiacos reached its first
Final Four, in Tel Aviv. In the all-Greek semifinals, Olympiacos
defeated archrival Panathinaikos by the score of
77-72 with 22 points by Paspalj and 21 by Roy Tarpley. In
the title game, Olympiacos fell to Joventut Badalona 59-
57. Paspalj, who scored 16 points, probably is not fond
of remembering that game because he missed 2 free
throws and a subsequent shot off the offensive rebound
that would have forced overtime. A few weeks earlier, he
had made 23 of 23 free throws in a Greek League game.
Maybe it was this game that caused him to switch
teams to ... Panathinaikos! It was a shocking decision,
but Paspalj took on the challenge and played a good
season that had a happy ending for him. Yugoslavia,
after three years of sanctions, was back on the international
scene and continued where it had left it off
in 1991, with a gold medal at the 1995 EuroBasket in
Athens. In the unforgettable final game against Lithuania,
which Yugoslavia won by a score of 96-90, Paspalj
scored 5 points, below his tournament average of 8.0
plus 2.7 rebounds, but he was happy anyway.
The following year, after having a very good season
with Panionios, where he played for Dusan Ivkovic, his
favorite coach, Paspalj almost opened the NBA doors for
himself again at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. In the final
against a very powerful Team USA (Gary Payton, Reggie
Miller, Scottie Pippen, Hakeem Olajuwon, John Stockton,
Penny Hardaway, Charles Barkley, David Robinson,
Shaquille O’Neal), Paspalj scored 19 points, 16 of them in
the first half, after which the Americans were leading by
just 5 points, 43-38. The Atlanta Hawks invited Paspalj to
their summer camp, but since he was not offered a guaranteed
contract, he remained in Europe. He signed with
Racing Paris and helped the team lift the French League
title for the first time in 43 years. His last trophy, the Greek
Cup, he won with Aris in the 1997-98 season. Paspalj put
an end to his career at Kinder Bologna in 1998-99 with a
humble average – by Paspalj’s standards –of 5.4 points
and 3.7 rebounds. He retired at 32 years old.
In his last seasons, his shooting was not what it
had once been, as if something had happened to his
body. Maybe it was a sign that his health was not in top
condition. In March of 2005, he suffered a heart attack
and was hospitalized. After that, he underwent several
more crises and had to undergo surgery to have a pacemaker
installed.
Between 2003 and 2005 he was the director of the
Yugoslavia national team coached by Zeljko Obradovic.
From 2009 and 2017, Paspalj served as the vice president
of the Serbian Olympic Committee, presided over
by his friend, Divac. He lives in Belgrade. Paspalj is a
joyful person, loved by everyone around him. Those
who have not seen him play should look for some videos
on the Internet. They will see a true superstar who
changed the Greek League.
101 greats of european basketball
Zarko Paspalj
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