101 Greats of European Basketball

Vladimir Stankovic
Men in Spain (13.9 points) and in 1984 he still played at
the European Championship for Junior Men in Sweden,
alongside Jure Zdovc, Zarko Paspalj, Ivo Nakic and Miroslav
Pecarski, among others. They won the silver medal
and Perasovic had an average of 24.7 points. On his club
team, Jugoplastika, he was already a steady starter with
17.5 points per game in 1984-85 and 25.5 in 1985-86.
Mastered by Maljkovic
The arrival of Boza Maljkovic to the Jugoplastika
bench was key, not only for the club but also for most
of its young players. Signing Dusko Ivanovic to have an
expert player on a very young team, Maljkovic achieved
the balance he was striving for between the enormous
talent he had seen – in Toni Kukoc, Radja, Peras, Sobin
and the others – and their lack of experience. But, before
turning his pupils into stars, the players had to
suffer and work hard. Perasovic himself, in an interview
for the official website of the Spanish League at the end
of his career in 2004, remembered the beginnings of
his relationship with Maljkovic:
“We had Boza sitting on our bench. Without a
doubt, he was the best coach I ever had and the one
who left the biggest impression on me. But, mind you, I
hated his guts because he mistreated me sports-wise.
I had many sleepless nights thinking he had something
against me. However, he was only trying to get the best
out of me. He said I had blood in my eyes and that he
should be able to control it. I don’t know what he does
today, but then he didn’t allow for the slightest mistake.
He was very tough, and he always got the best out of
us. I learned a lot from him.”
The fruits of that work with Maljkovic arrived soon:
four straight Yugoslav League titles (from 1988 through
1991), two Yugoslav Cups (1990 and 1991) and three
EuroLeague titles (1989 to 1991). In four years, they
won nine top trophies. Perasovic was not the hero in
any of the three European finals – against Maccabi in
1989 he scored 1 point; against Barcelona in 1990, he
had 12; and in 1991 he had 6 points – but on such a great
team that was logical. Kukoc, Radja, Ivanovic, Zoran
Savic, Sretenovic, Luka Pavicevic, Sobin, youngsters
Zan Tabak and Petar Naumoski formed a great team
that dominated Europe for three years, something that
has not been matched since then.
The competition to make the Yugoslav national
team was tough, and Perasovic was left off the 1988
Olympics runner-up roster in Seoul and the title-winning
1989 EuroBasket team in Zagreb. But coach Dusan
Ivkovic could not leave Peras out for the 1990 World
Cup in Buenos Aires. The backcourt, formed by Petrovic,
Zdovc, Zeljko Obradovic and Perasovic, worked
flawlessly. They came back as world champs and Peras
averaged 8.4 points per game. The following year, he
would add the EuroBasket champions’ title in Rome
to an already impressive résumé, scoring 9 points per
game in the last competition of the great Yugoslavia
teams. Before wearing the Croatia jersey, Perasovic
had played 62 games with Yugoslavia (plus 43 in youth
categories) with a total 669 points.
Scoring king in Spain
During the 1991-92 season, due to the war in Yugoslavia,
FIBA made Partizan, Cibona and Slobodna Dalmacija
(the new name of Jugoplastika) to play outside of
their countries. The three of them chose Spain. Slobodna
played in La Coruña, Cibona in Puerto Real and Partizan
in Fuenlabrada. In the duel against Cibona – they
were in the same group – Perasovic scored 45 points, his
personal record in Europe! Against Caserta, he scored
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