Peter Vilfan (born 29 June 1957) is a Slovenian former professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

player,

sports journalist Sports journalism is a form of writing that reports on matters pertaining to sporting topics and competitions. Sports journalism started in the early 1800s when it was targeted to the social elite and transitioned into an integral part of the n ...

, commentator, and a

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

. He resigned from the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repre ...

due to

DUI Driving under the influence (DUI)—also called driving while impaired, impaired driving, driving while intoxicated (DWI), drunk driving, operating while intoxicated (OWI), operating under the influence (OUI), operating vehicle under the infl ...

in 2014, and from the State Secretary position in 2019 amid

tax evasion Tax evasion is an illegal attempt to defeat the imposition of taxes by individuals, corporations, trusts, and others. Tax evasion often entails the deliberate misrepresentation of the taxpayer's affairs to the tax authorities to reduce the taxp ...

proceedings. As a basketball player, he was a member of the senior Yugoslavia national team, with which he won a

gold medal A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have bee ...

at the

1978 FIBA World Championship The 1978 FIBA World Championship was the 8th FIBA World Championship, the international basketball world championship for men's teams. The tournament was hosted by the Philippines from October 1 to 14, 1978 in Rizal Memorial Coliseum in Manila an ...

, in

Manila Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and, as of 2019, was the world's most densely populate ...

. He was inducted into the

Slovenian Athletes Hall of Fame The Slovenian Athletes Hall of Fame (slovene: "''Hram slavnih slovenskih športnikov''") was founded in 2011 by the Society of Slovenian Sports Journalists (''Društvo športnih novinarjev Slovenije'') and includes best Slovenian athletes of all ti ...

, in 2013.

Basketball club career

KK Union Olimpija vs Maccabi Tel Aviv 2009-12-03 (23)

During his club basketball playing career, Vilfan played with

Maribor Maribor ( , , , ; also known by other #Name, historical names) is the second-largest city in Slovenia and the largest city of the traditional region of Styria (Slovenia), Lower Styria. It is also the seat of the City Municipality of Maribor, th ...

, Jugoplastika, Olimpija, and

Partizan Partizan may refer to: Sport * JSD Partizan, a sports society from Belgrade, Serbia, which includes the following clubs: **AK Partizan, athletics ** Biciklistički Klub Partizan, cycling ** Džudo Klub Partizan, judo **FK Partizan, association fo ...

Basketball national team career

Yugoslavian national team

Vilfan made 121 appearances with the senior

Yugoslavian national basketball team The Yugoslavia men's national basketball team ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Košarkaška reprezentacija Jugoslavije, Кошаркашка репрезентација Југославије; sl, Jugoslovanska košarkarska reprezentanca; mk, ...

, between 1977 and 1983, making him the third most capped Slovenian player for

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...

. He played in five major international

FIBA The International Basketball Federation (FIBA ; French: ) is an association of national organizations which governs the sport of basketball worldwide. Originally known as the (hence FIBA), in 1989 it dropped the word ''amateur'' from its na ...

tournaments: the

, the EuroBasket 1979, the EuroBasket 1981, the

1982 FIBA World Championship The 1982 FIBA World Championship was the 9th FIBA World Championship, the international basketball world championship for men's teams. The tournament was hosted by Colombia from 15 to 28 August 1982. Qualification Venues Competing nation ...

, and the EuroBasket 1983. He won one gold and one bronze medal at the

FIBA World Cup The FIBA Basketball World Cup, also known as the FIBA World Cup of Basketball or simply the FIBA World Cup, between 1950 and 2010 known as the FIBA World Championship, is an international basketball competition contested by the senior men's nat ...

, and one silver and one bronze at the

EuroBasket EuroBasket, also commonly referred to as the European Basketball Championship, is the main international basketball competition that is contested quadrennially, by the senior men's national teams that are governed by FIBA Europe, which is the E ...

Slovenian national team

Vilfan was the first team captain of the senior

Slovenian national basketball team The Slovenia men's national basketball team ( sl, Slovenska košarkarska reprezentanca) represents Slovenia in international basketball competitions, and is managed by the Basketball Federation of Slovenia. Since the independence of Slovenia in ...

, following Slovenia's independence from Yugoslavia.

Post-playing career

After his retirement from playing professional basketball, Vilfan began working at the Slovenian radio and television network, as a

sports commentator In sports broadcasting, a sports commentator (also known as sports announcer or sportscaster) provides a real-time commentary of a game or event, usually during a live broadcast, traditionally delivered in the historical present tense. Radio was ...

. He also opened a basketball school for children.

Political career

In 2011, Vilfan joined the Positive Slovenia (PS) party, and was elected to the

. For the May 2014 European Parliament elections, he was placed last (8th place) on the list of candidates by the PS. On 29 April 2014, he left the PS party. On 10 May 2014, he was driving under the influence, and hit an elderly pedestrian, who needed hospitalization. The next day, he admitted to the

event, and resigned as a member of the National Assembly. On 31 May 2014, he became a vice-president of the newly founded party

Alliance of Alenka Bratušek An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or sovereign state, states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alli ...

. In 2018 elections, Vilfan was not elected to the National Assembly and he became a State Secretary in Prime Minister's cabinet. In 2019, he resigned over tax evasion accusations. Upon his resignation he paid €30,000 of additional taxes levied on him by tax authorities. In his resignation statement, he wrote that he had not reported his income correctly due to "bookkeeping error" and that he was resigning amid "two months of media pursuit, defamation, and pressure."

Personal life

Vilfan's son-in-law is the Macedonian professional basketball player Vlado Ilievski.Slovenskenovice.si - V težavah tudi Vilfanov zet, Italijani mu očitajo utajo davkov
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References

External links

FIBA Profile 1
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vilfan, Peter 1957 births Living people KK Olimpija players KK Partizan players KK Olimpija coaches Members of the National Assembly (Slovenia) Point guards Positive Slovenia politicians Shooting guards Slovenian men's basketball players Slovenian sports broadcasters Slovenian sports journalists Sportspeople from Maribor Yugoslav men's basketball players 1978 FIBA World Championship players 1982 FIBA World Championship players FIBA World Championship-winning players