With the country's still-formally-enforced strict sporting exit rules—stipulating that no player is allowed to transfer abroad before turning 28 years of age—already being bent and occasionally loosened (superstar Dražen Petrović going to Real Madrid at the age of 24 one year earlier), summer 1989 saw two more high-profile star players leaving the league way before turning 28: twenty-one-year-old Vlade Divac joining the Los Angeles Lakers and twenty-three-year-old Žarko Paspalj heading to the San Antonio Spurs.

[1] Attracted by superior financial compensation in the NBA, the summer 1989 offseason saw yet another newly drafted young Yugoslav star player, Dino Rađa, even resort to unilaterally travelling to the United States and signing with the Boston Celtics despite having a valid contract with KK Jugoplastika; he would eventually be forced to return to Yugoslavia following a Jugoplastika-initiated legal process before U.S. courts.

not to mention a slew of even younger juniors coming up such as Dejan Bodiroga and Željko Rebrača—it was becoming clear that the decades-long system of keeping players in the country until the age of 28 was about to become impossible to keep maintaining.

Furthermore, with Petrović moving to the Portland Trail Blazers—along with Divac and Paspalj joining the Lakers and Spurs, respectively—the entire Yugoslav basketball media ecosystem began to change as well.

[2] The US$28,000 price tag (US$67,000 in 2022)[3] was reportedly split between JRT's two biggest television affiliates—TV Beograd and TV Zagreb—with each one paying US$14,000.