Paspalj came to the Spurs courtesy of the team's assistant coach Gregg Popovich who noticed the 23-year-old small forward at a warm-up tournament in Dortmund, West Germany in early June 1989 where the Yugoslav national team had been preparing for EuroBasket 1989 later that month. Liking Paspalj's game, Popovich established initial contact with the player through Paspalj's national squad training camp teammate Zoran Jovanović who spoke English having played college ball at Louisiana State. When approached by Popovich about coming to the Spurs, Paspalj immediately expressed interest despite openly admitting to never actually believing anything would come of it as the notion of playing basketball in the NBA seemed vague and far fetched to him. Immediately following the EuroBasket championship—where Yugoslavia won gold in dominating fashion with Paspalj making the All-Tournament Team by contributing 13.4 points per game over five games, all of them blowout wins for the rampant Yugoslavs—the player was even quoted in Yugoslav press rubbishing the idea of going to the NBA while announcing intention of completing his mandatory Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) service before finishing his contract with Partizan and only then transferring abroad to either Italian or Spanish league. Nevertheless, the Spurs acquisition was agreed within weeks with Paspalj on summer vacation in Budva and Popovich reaching out with a US$350,000 gross sum offer for a one-year contract with options to extend afterwards. Basketball player Nebojša Bukumirović, another former NCAA player, also participated as an operational liaison in the subsequent transfer process from Partizan to San Antonio. Still, Paspalj's transfer was not without procedural issues stemming from the fact NBA teams did not pay transfer fees for European players under contract with clubs in Europe, treating their entry into the league within the same legal framework as American collegiate players turning professional. Any transfer fee compensation to European clubs for releasing a player early from his contractual obligations thus fell on the player himself. In Paspalj's case, due to still being under contract with Partizan, the club wanted him to pay US$50,000 for the release but the player refused, claiming supposed earlier unmet stipulations from his contract. Even the club's outgoing head coach Duško Vujošević—himself on his way out of the club—got involved, reportedly counselling Paspalj privately to pay the fee by reasoning that it's "unbecoming of the best forward in Europe to leave his club this way". In the end, the player chose not to pay the fee; instead accepting an agreement whereby KK Partizan retained his rights should he return to Europe.