Velimir Perasović

Velimir Perasović

Laboral Kutxa Baskonia
Position	Head coach
League	Liga Endesa Euroleague
Personal information
Born	February 9, 1965 Stobreč, SR Croatia, SFR Yugoslavia
Nationality	Croatian
Listed height	1.96 m (6 ft 5 in)
Career information
NBA draft	1987 / Undrafted
Playing career	1985–2003
Position	Shooting guard
Coaching career	2003–present
Career history
As player:
1985–1992	KK Split
1992–1993	Breogán
1993–1997	Baskonia
1997–2002	Fuenlabrada
2002–2003	Alicante
As coach:
2003–2004	KK Split
2004–2005	Sevilla
2005–2007	Baskonia
2007–2008	Estudiantes
2008–2010	Cibona
2010–2011	Efes Pilsen
2012–2015	Valencia
2015	Croatia
2015–present	Baskonia
Career highlights and awards
As a player: Euroleague Final Four Team (1991) 3× Euroleague champion (1989-1991) European Cup winner (1996) 4× Yugoslav League champion (1988-1991) 2× Yugoslav Cup winner (1991, 1992) Croatian Cup winner (1992) Spanish Cup winner (1995) Spanish Cup MVP (1994) As a coach: Eurocup champion (2014) 2× Croatian League champion (2009-2010) Spanish Cup winner (2006) Spanish Supercup winner (2006) Croatian Cup winner (2009) Turkish Cup winner (2010) AEEB Coach of the Year (2014)
Medals Men's basketball Competitor for Yugoslavia FIBA World Cup 1990 Argentina EuroBasket 1991 Italy Yugoslavia Summer Universiade 1983 Edmonton Team Competitor for Croatia Olympic Games 1992 Barcelona Team EuroBasket 1993 Germany

Velimir Perasović (born February 9, 1965) is a Croatian basketball coach and former professional player. He is currently coaching Laboral Kutxa Baskonia.

Early life

Perasović was born in Stobreč, in the former Yugoslavia. He started playing basketball at the age of 14, and was soon recruited by KK Split, then named Jugoplastika, in 1981.

Perasović was member of the Yugoslav junior national basketball team which won the silver medal in the junior European championship in Bulgaria in 1982, and the bronze medal in Sweden in 1984.

Player career

His club went on to win three Euroleague Championships, in 1989 and 1990 as "Jugoplastika" and in 1991 as "Pop 84". In 1988, 1989, 1990 and 1991 they also won the Yugoslav basketball championship. In 1990 and 1991 they won the Yugoslav basketball cup, and in 1992 the Croatian basketball cup (that time as "Slobodna Dalmacija Split").

Perasović was part of the famous national team of Yugoslavia that won the World Championship in Argentina in 1990, and the European championship in Italy in 1991. He played for the Croatian national basketball team when they won the silver in the Barcelona Olympics in 1992, the bronze medal in 1994 World Championship in Canada and the European bronze medal in Germany in 1993 and Greece in 1995.

In 1992, Perasović moved to the Spanish club Breogán and spent one season there before moving to Baskonia in 1993. He won the 1995 Spanish basketball cup and in 1996 the Saporta Cup against PAOK.

In 1997 he moved to Fuenlabrada where he played until 2002, then moved to Alicante, and finally retired from his playing career in 2003. In his career in Spain, he won the award for the best scorer of the Spanish league several times, was once the best scorer of the Radivoj Korać Cup, and participated in several ACB All Star games.

Coach career

He became the manager of Split for a while, before moving back to Spain to become the manager of Baskonia. He led the team to the Euroleague Final Four.

In the 2007-08 season he became the coach for Estudiantes, filling in for Mariano de Pablos, who had been fired due to negative results, and succeeded in keeping the team in the Spanish league.

He then moved to Zagreb, Croatia, to become the Cibona coach in the seasons 2008-09 and 2009-10. In 2009 he led the team to the Adriatic League final, winning the award for the best coach in the Adriatic League in 2008-09 season, and won the Croatian cup and championship, respectively. He again took Cibona to the Adriatic League and Croatian cup finals in 2010, and won the Croatian championship, making Cibona the first team in the Croatian championship history to overcome a 0-2 deficit in a best-of-five playoff series. He reached Euroleague Top 16 phase in both seasons with Cibona.

In January 2012, he came back to Spain to coach Valencia. Perasović won the 2013–14 Eurocup and left the club in January 2015.^[1] In March 2015 Perasović took over the Croatia men's national basketball team.^[2] After a disappointing EuroBasket 2015 tournament, in which Croatia was defeated in the Eightfinals, Perasović and Croatia parted ways.

In June 2015, he came back to Spain to coach Baskonia.^[3]

References

1. Valencia, Coach Perasovic part ways; Eurocup Basketball, 22 January 2015
2. "Perasović o reprezentaciji: 'Uvest ću igrače koji mogu unaprijediti našu igru'". Sportske novovsti (in Croatian) (2 March 2015). Retrieved 7 September 2015.
3. "Velimir Perasovic, new Laboral Kutxa Baskonia Head Coach". baskonia.com. June 6, 2015.

External links

• Velimir Perasović at Euroleague.net
• Velimir Perasović at ACB.com (Spanish)