He may have moved from Olympiacos to the "hated" Panathinaikos, but Piraeus does not forget the legendary games of the Montenegrin basketball player...
Žarko Paspalj returned to the port of Athens, and Olimpijkos made an effort to thank him once again in the right way.
The giant from Pljevlja was a guest of the Greek giant during the Euroleague play-off match against Real Madrid. Before the match, he was greeted with applause from the stands of the "Peace and Friendship" hall, and from his former club he also received a framed jersey with the number eight that he wore at Olympiacos.
Paspalj's arrival in Piraeus in 1991, as the first big star of European basketball, represented a turning point in the history of Olympiacos, which until that year had been far from a big story and had not been a Greek champion since the late seventies.
Piraeus quickly got to know the famous left winger, Paspalj was generally the most efficient player on the team, and his 54 points in the match against Dafni are remembered - a record that no one has managed to break in the Greek championship to this day.
Paspalj and Olympiacos ended their long spell in the domestic championship with two titles in 1993 and 1994, and were one step away from conquering Europe.
Paspalj led Olympiacos to the Euroleague finals in 1994, was also the MVP of the Final Four in Tel Aviv, but also a tragic figure because in the final against Juventud he was unlucky to decide the match from the free throw line (then it was one-on-one shooting), and in the continuation of the last attack of the match, he also made a two-point shot.
There was no luck then, but Paspalj did a lot for Olympiacos, and his welcome three decades later shows it.
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