European Reunion

Once, he was a superstar.

Zeljko Rebraca, signed by the Clippers in August as a backup to center Chris Kaman, was the toast of European basketball, leading teams in Italy and Greece to championships and collecting MVP hardware along the way.

Voted most valuable player at the world championships in 1998, he helped Yugoslavia win world titles in 1995 and 1998, an Olympic silver medal in 1996.

“Believe me,” teammate Marko Jaric said, “he was a force.”

In the NBA, however, Rebraca (pronounced ru-brah-sha) has barely made a ripple, his transition to the new world slowed by injuries and ailments, among them an irregular heartbeat that led to surgery 14 months ago.

His last two seasons having yielded mostly derailments and disappointments after a promising rookie season with the Detroit Pistons in 2001-02, the 7-foot, 265-pound Serb is attempting a comeback of sorts with the Clippers.

“I want to show what I can do, you know?” said Rebraca, a 32-year-old husband and father of three who played 10 seasons in Europe before coming to the United States. “I didn’t show everything that I can do in NBA. I have big desire to come back and to play at a high level....

“I think I can do a lot to help this team, and I want to show that. Also, I want to prove to myself what I can do in NBA.”

The Clippers turned to Rebraca last summer after another Serb, Vlade Divac, turned them down, taking a lesser offer to rejoin the Lakers. Rebraca said he also had rejected better offers, consulting with Jaric before spurning the Boston Celtics, among others, for a one-year, $2.5-million deal with the Clippers.

Jaric told Rebraca that the Clippers, looking to add size, could really use him. His countryman also advised that taking a one-year deal made sense because he could turn a strong comeback season into a richer contract next summer.

Clipper General Manager Elgin Baylor said Rebraca checked out fine physically and drew high marks from the Pistons for his personality and character.

“They said you couldn’t find a greater person,” Baylor said.

The Clippers also liked his low-post skills, his perimeter jump shot and, Rebraca having played for the no-nonsense Pistons, his defensive toughness.

Rebraca also brings perseverance and perspective, having taking a circuitous route to get here. Drafted by the Seattle SuperSonics in 1994, the 54th pick overall, he was traded three times before he ever played in the NBA.

Though an all-star player and a champion in Europe, Rebraca said NBA teams didn’t believe in him.

Echoed Divac: “I don’t think he had a good opportunity.”

Not that he was struggling in Europe. He owns businesses in his native Serbia and Montenegro, plus a villa about 15 minutes outside Venice, Italy.

Eventually, though, “I won everything in Europe,” he said. “I was the best European player. I won two times the Euroleague, two times Greek championship, Italian championship. Nothing else to win, you know?”

Believing that his career would not be complete without his at least giving the NBA a shot, he signed with the Pistons. A second-team all-rookie selection, he was the Pistons’ starting center in the first 12 games of his second season before an arrhythmic heart sidelined him in December 2002.

Though he returned to the lineup in time for the 2003 playoffs, medication left him fighting nausea and fatigue for months. In August 2003, he reluctantly agreed to a corrective heart procedure that would prolong his career. And though the surgery did not require opening his chest, it left him inactive for five more months.

He played in only 24 games last season, when the Pistons traded him to the Atlanta Hawks in the February deal that brought them Rasheed Wallace and eventually put them over the top in their pursuit of the NBA title.

Rebraca says he’s fine now, determined to leave his mark.

“It’s past,” he said of his setbacks. “Now I feel ... normal.”