VELIMIR PERASOVIC - 101 Greats of European Basketball

Velimir
Perasovic
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The professional
scorer
In the history of European cups, there are few players
who can say that they played in six finals and
won four of them. One such player is Velimir Perasovic,
who was born on February 9, 1965, in Stobrec,
Croatia. He was a triple EuroLeague champ
with Jugoplastika (1989, 1990, 1991), a Saporta
Cup champ in 1996 with Taugres Vitoria, and also a
finalist in the latter competition in 1994 and 1995. If
we add his titles with the Yugoslav and Croatian national
teams, and his individual marks with his teams
in Yugoslavia and Spain, we have the story of one of
the most-crowned players in the history of European
basketball.
In a brilliant career that lasted for 24 years, Perasovic
was always an outstanding scorer, a killer in whom
his coaches always showed the utmost confidence. He
played alongside other great scorers, like Toni Kukoc
and Dusko Ivanovic in Split, or Drazen Petrovic, Zarko
Paspalj, Sasha Djordjevic, Predrag Danilovic and Danko
Cvjeticanin on the national teams. But many times, the
last shot was for Perasovic. He had an excellent shot, a
wonderful touch. Curiously enough, of the hundreds
of baskets by him that I saw live or on TV, the one that
I remember the most is a triple that beat the buzzer...in
the first half. In the 1990 EuroLeague final in Zaragoza,
Jugoplastika was always ahead but the difference was
slim, and it always looked like FC Barcelona could come
back at any given moment. With seconds left in the first
half, Jugoplastika was winning 37-36, but Barcelona had
the ball and the chance to hit the locker rooms ahead on
the scoreboard. But they missed their shot, and the ball
made it to Perasovic’s hands. He ran a few meters and,
from mid-court, shot and hit the three-pointer for a 40-
36 lead at the break. It was one of those shots that affect
opponents psychologically. In the second half, Barcelona
was always behind and, in the end, lost 70-65.
Alongside Drazen
The great Drazen Petrovic was only three months
older than Perasovic. Drazen was born in October of
1964 and Peras, as almost everybody calls him, in the
winter of 1965. They belonged to the same generation.
In some ways, this worked against Perasovic because
Petrovic was a true star on the court and also a media
reference point. But, while they played together for 11
years on the national teams of Yugoslavia and Croatia,
Peras earned his place in the basketball history of both
countries.
If I remember correctly, we heard the name Perasovic
for the first time when the Yugoslav federation
announced the list of players for the 1981 European
Championship for Cadets in Athens. The names were
Drazen Petrovic, Stojko Vrankovic, Zoran Sretenovic,
Sasa Radunovic and Velimir Perasovic, among others.
Drazen wowed everyone by averaging 32.4 points, and
he surpassed 40 points three times. But Perasovic averaged
13 points and he caught everyone’s attention, too.
Despite being a great team, Yugoslavia finished fifth.
In the 1981-82 season, Perasovic made his debut with
Jugoplastika’s first team, but in the Yugoslavian second
division. In 1982, the same generation of players plus
Cvjeticanin and Goran Sobin won the silver medal at the
1983 European Championship for Junior Men. Perasovic
took part in the 1983 World Championship for Junior
Velimir Perasovic
101 greats of european basketball
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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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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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