called a doctor. Once at the hospital, his heart attack was diagnosed and he remained hospitalized for about a week at Athens' Asklipieio General Hospital of Voula where he got advised to fundamentally change his lifestyle, including quitting smoking and reducing sports-related physical activity to a minimum. By own admission, Paspalj completely ignored the doctor's advice, soon suffering another heart attack, this time a more serious one, while playing tennis several months later in July 2001. One year after that, during summer 2002, he experienced two more similar episodes that required hospitalization and stints in intensive care — first in June 2002 in Athens and then two months later on 18 August 2002 in Belgrade while playing outdoor pickup basketball with friends who reacted quickly and got him to a hospital where he got placed in intensive care at the cardiology unit of Belgrade's Urgentni centar. In October 2005, during a discussion on RTS television's Ključ programme regarding coronary issues, he stated that two heart attacks weren't enough to force him into quitting smoking or into substantially changing his lifestyle. In a November 2007 interview on the same television (Balkanskom ulicom programme) he admitted to still smoking, though adding he cut back on it significantly and is in the process of phasing it out completely. In November 2017, Paspalj was reported to have suffered a stroke while visiting San Antonio. After spending some time in hospital, Paspalj moved to the home of San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, where he was visited by his former teammate Vlade Divac, who reported that the worst had passed but that Paspalj was only beginning to communicate again. Role on the Serbia-Montenegro bench In the early 2004 he became team manager for the Serbia-Montenegro national squad, working under head coach Željko Obradović who had just come back to the national team following a four-year absence. The most important aspect of Paspalj's job was helping create the right atmosphere by acting as a liaison between the head coach and the players. The thinking was that such a well-liked former player would have a soothing effect on the damaged inter-squad relations. Paspalj was also entrusted with the role of convincing different players, especially ones from the NBA, to come play for the national team. Unfortunately, his time at the post coincided with two of the team's worst performances in recent history as S&M finished 11th (out