[4] At the time, Budućnost was a small, unambitious side that had played its first ever top-tier season two years earlier in 1980–81, essentially serving as talent feeder for bigger Yugoslav League clubs like Partizan, Cibona, Jugoplastika, Crvena zvezda, and Bosna.

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.

Together with young Sasha Djordjevic, Željko Obradović and more established players like Milenko Savović and Goran Grbović, they won the national title in a final against Crvena zvezda.

The following year, in 1988, he played a leading role in the side that made it to the Olympic final against the Soviet Union, and marked himself out as a potential star with some fine performances for Yugoslavia at the 1988 McDonald's Open.

[5] He came into the league alongside two Soviets (Šarūnas Marčiulionis and Alexander Volkov) and two more fellow Yugoslavs (Dražen Petrović and Vlade Divac) as they were collectively dubbed the "green card five" by Sports Illustrated.

It was Luka Pavićević, EuroLeague champion with 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.

[8]Upon arriving to the United States in early July 1989, months before the other four Europeans,[8] and signing a one-year contract for US$350,000,[7] Paspalj was off to Long Beach, California to play Summer Pro League, appearing on a squad alongside Spurs' other new acquisitions David Robinson and Anthony Bowie.

Summing up his season with the Spurs and life in the United States, Paspalj remarked in 2015: Back in 1989, communism was basically the only lens through which most Americans viewed us newly arriving eastern European guys.

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.

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.

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.

Playing on a fairly modest squad led by head coach Ioannidis, Paspalj was the go-to player in almost every match, capable of scoring from almost any angle and distance with his outside shooting a particularly deadly weapon in his arsenal.

During the summer 1993 transfer window, Olympiacos brought in Roy Tarpley, a supreme talent who having been banished from the NBA due to multiple drunk-driving incidents just completed a great season for Sato Aris.

Following a series of below-par performances, in which his shooting percentage had dipped alarmingly, Paspalj memorably made 3/4 free throws, 12/20 two-point shots and hit a buzzer-beater three-pointer to close the first half.

This consistent shooting was reminiscent of his first two, memorable, years, and contrasted sharply with the scenes at the end of Game 1 when, after having shot 1 from 7 from the free-throw line, Paspalj made two free throws in the final seconds to immense jubilation and celebration from the stands and from teammates and opposition players alike.

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.

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.

This was evident during the 1995 EuroBasket held in Athens, when fans of both clubs jeered him, although a huge chunk of their dissatisfaction could be attributed to Paspalj being the captain of the powerhouse Yugoslav squad that just ended Greek hopes of winning the title on home soil in an emotionally charged semi-final.

In one performance against Sporting he scored 42 points (11/16, 14/19, 1/2), his highest since his second year at Olympiacos, while in a FIBA Korać Cup match against Borovica Ruma he hit 36 on 8/9 free throws and 14/18 two-point attempts.

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.

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.

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 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.

Talented 17-year-old small forward Paspalj, playing in Budućnost's youth categories at the time, got his first taste of the Yugoslav national team system in summer 1983 when he was picked by head coach Rusmir Halilović to represent the country at the European Championship for Cadets in the West German towns of Tübingen and Ludwigsburg.

Being on a squad alongside fellow youngsters such as Jure Zdovc, Bane Prelević, Miroslav Pecarski, Ivo Nakić, and Luka Pavićević, Paspalj had a solid tournament, recording 14.6 points per game, just behind the team's leading scorer Ivica Mavrenski (18.4 ppg).

[13] Not realizing what had happened, he went back to his Glyfada home where, while showering after football, he reportedly started feeling severe fatigue along with strong burning sensation in his lungs at which point he called a doctor.

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.