101 Greats of European Basketball

37. Perasovic finished that season with 25.8 points on
average. He was the last of the Mohicans from the great
Jugoplastika. Before leaving Split, he played with Croatia
in the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona and won the silver
medal (7.9 points) together with Petrovic, Kukoc, Radja,
Vrankovic, Cvjeticanin and Arijan Komazec. A humble
Spanish team, Breogan, had a better sense than some
big European clubs and signed Peras in his prime, at 27
years old. At the end of the season, after his 24.5-point
average made him the Spanish League’s top scorer, many
noticed the diamond in their midst. His good season
ended at the 1993 EuroBasket in Germany with a bronze
medal for Croatia, thanks to his 19.1 points per game.
The smartest team was Taugres Vitoria. Coincidence
or not, in the same season that it signed Perasovic, the
team reached its first European final. In Lausanne on
March 15, 1994, the Saporta Cup final between Union
Olimpija and Taugres took place. Olimpija won, 91-81
thanks to some unbelievable three-point accuracy,
especially by Roman Horvat, who scored 33 points
including 9 of 14 threes. He was well accompanied by
Dusan Hauptman with 27 points. On the other side,
Ken Bannister scored 32 points and Peras had 22. I was
at that game and what impressed me the most was the
love of the Vitoria fans for their team despite the loss.
In March of 1995, Peras and Taugres won their first
trophy, the Spanish King’s Cup. In the final tourney,
played in Granada, the team from Vitoria defeated Joventut
96-89 in the quarterfinals. In the semis, the team
dealt with the Real Madrid of coach Zeljko Obradovic and
Arvydas Sabonis – the same team that three months
later would be EuroLeague champ – by the score of 86-
79 with a nearly perfect Perasovic: 34 points with 6 of 8
two-pointers, 4 of 4 threes and 10 of 11 free throws in 40
minutes. In the final, Taugres defeated CAI Zaragoza 88-
80. Perasovic and Marcelo Nicola had 17 points apiece,
Pablo Laso added 11. The MVP of the tournament, you
ask? Well, of course, it was Velimir Perasovic.
On March 12, 1996, in Vitoria, I was a witness to the
first European trophy for Baskonia. The third final was
the charm. At home, with its great fans, Taugres defeated
PAOK Thessaloniki with a great game by Ramon
Rivas, who scored 31 points. Nicola added 19 points
and Perasovic had 17. Branislav Prelevic shined for the
Greek team with 34 points and young Peja Stojakovic
confirmed his talent with 20 points. It was Perasovic’s
sixth European final and his fourth title at the club level.
With Croatia, he won the bronze medal in the 1995
EuroBasket in Athens, scoring 10.5 points on average.
At the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, his contribution was a
modest 2.7 points and Croatia finished seventh. Back
at the 1997 EuroBasket in Spain, his average rose again
to 12.0 points, but Croatia dropped to 11th place. That
year, at 32 years old, he signed with Fuenlabrada. He
was like good wine: he improved with age.
In the 1998-99 season, he was again the Spanish
League’s top scorer with 22.5 points per game. He repeated
that award in 2000-01 and 2001-02 with 22.9
and 22.4 points, respectively. In 2002, he signed for
Lucentum Alicante, where he put an end to his brilliant
career two years later after having averaged 17.9 points
at 37 years old. In his 11 seasons in the Spanish League,
Perasovic put in 7,387 points and still ranks ninth all-time
in total scoring. He averaged 20.9 points over 354 games
and played more than 12,000 minutes. He is the fourth
best three-point shooter with 882 made, after Alberto
Herreros Juan Carlos Navarro and Alex Mumbru – all of
whom played at least 300 more games than Peras.
As a player, he was a natural born scorer. As a coach,
Velimir Perasovic is a winner.
101 greats of european basketball
Velimir Perasovic
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