1988–89 season: Korać Cup & Yugoslav Cup winners, losing the Yugoslav league finals

In the summer of 1988, Danilović's two-year ban finally expired and the player was free to suit up for Partizan. Already familiar with the players he had been practicing with for more than a year, the eighteen-year-old joined a roster laden with talent at all positions – twenty-one-year-old point guard Saša Đorđević, twenty-two-year-old forward Žarko Paspalj who could play both the three and four positions, twenty-two-year-old small forward Ivo Nakić, twenty-year-old versatile center Vlade Divac, and his twenty-one-year-old backup Miroslav Pecarski as well as a pair of experienced twenty-eight-year-olds: backup point guard Željko Obradović and backup center Milenko Savović. Starting small forward Goran Grbović (who often also played the shooting guard position) left the club for Oximesa that summer, opening up space for incoming Danilović. Coming off the season in which they made the EuroLeague Final Four (eliminated by Maccabi in the semi-final) and lost to emerging Jugoplastika in the Yugoslav League playoff final series, the young Partizan team was looking to reclaim the domestic league title.

Young Danilović immediately got big minutes at shooting guard, putting in a promising debut campaign, especially excelling in defensive tasks^[6] while contributing modest 5.6 points per game offensively (123 points over 21 league appearances).^[7] Partizan finished the regular season in first place with a 16–6 record, same as Jugoplastika, but with better basket difference, meaning the Belgrade club would have the home court advantage in the playoffs.

Winning both cup competitions that season – the FIBA Korać Cup and the Yugoslav Cup — came as a great confidence boost for the young squad. The two trophies came in quick succession during mid March 1989 – on Thursday, March 16, Partizan went to Cantù for the first leg of the Korać Cup final away versus Wiwa Vismara losing by 13 points with Danilović getting a starting assignment and recording 10 points,^[8] followed by travelling straight to Maribor to play Jugoplastika in the Yugoslav Cup final on Sunday, March 19, and winning 87–74, before returning home for the return leg of the Korać Cup final on home court in Hala sportova on Wednesday, March 22, and winning by 19 to overturn their first leg deficit and take the trophy. Danilović, this time coming off the bench, again contributed with 10 points in the return leg,^[8] getting his name on the second major trophy within three days.

Back on the domestic league front, in the playoff semi-final, Partizan easily eliminated crosstown rivals Crvena Zvezda, setting up the final rematch with Jugoplastika that had won that season's EuroLeague in the meantime. The best-of-three final series started in Belgrade, but right away Partizan lost the home court advantage by dropping the opening game 73–74. The series shifted to Split where Jugoplastika won 75–70, beating Partizan to the league championship for the second straight season.

1989–90 season: broken leg

A testament to his brilliant debut season, in summer 1989 Danilović got called up for the Yugoslav national team training camp by head coach Dušan Ivković ahead of EuroBasket 1989, eventually making the final 12-man squad where he played alongside club teammates Divac and Paspalj. Coming back to Partizan later that summer, the roster went through major changes as both Divac and Paspalj left after signing NBA contracts, with Lakers and Spurs, respectively, point guard Đorđević went to serve his mandatory Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) stint thus missing most of the season,^[9] while head coach Vujošević left for Spanish club Oximesa from Granada, taking veteran center Savović with him. Reba Ćorković, who had previously coached the club during two separate stints in the mid-1970s and early 1980s—winning two domestic league titles, in 1975–76 and 1980–81 seasons—returned as head coach.

Playing with a depleted roster, the season turned out to be a write-off as it quickly became clear this Partizan squad was no match for tougher Yugoslav clubs. Their deficiencies were especially evident at center as Pecarski who in the absence of Divac got forced into playing long minutes was often outplayed by the opposition's center line. Partizan finished the season in 8th place with a 9–13 record, missing the playoffs – the club's worst league finish in nineteen years. They didn't fare much better in the Yugoslav Cup or FIBA European Cup Winners' Cup, finishing both competitions at the quarterfinal stage. It wasn't much better for Danilović individually, either: after starting the season off strongly with continually improving performances, he suffered an injury (broken leg) that ended his season after appearing in only 11 games,^[6] posting 14.3ppg.^[7] The injury also kept him out of consideration for the Yugoslavia national team roster at the 1990 World Championship.

1990–91 season: return from injury, another Yugoslav league finals loss

Using his by now well-known penchant for hard work, twenty-year-old Danilović focused on rehabilitating his broken leg to regain game fitness for the start of the 1990–91 season.^[6] Meanwhile, the team went through significant changes with head coach Ćorković let go and eventually replaced with Danilović's mentor Vujošević who thus returned to the club after a largely unsuccessful episode in Spain. Another returnee with a sub-par season behind him was old favourite Paspalj, back after only a season with the Spurs. With Partizan's main title contender, reigning European and Yugoslav champions KK Split, going through a coaching change with their head coach Boža Maljković taking Barça's lucrative offer, in addition to their center Dino Rađa making a big money move to Italy, the reinforced Partizan roster seemed poised to finally overcome its biggest rival of the last few years.

With fully recovered shooting guard Danilović confidently holding Partizan's backcourt alongside point guard Saša Đorđević, the team finished the regular season in the second spot with an 18–4 record behind KK Split's 19–3. Now an integral part of the team, Danilović contributed with 13.9 points per game in the league.^[7]

In late June 1992, Danilović entered the NBA draft where he was taken in the second round by Golden State Warriors as the 43rd overall pick. He eventually decided to stay in Europe, signing with sports agent Mira Poljo, an established agent with good connections in Italy through Interperformances sports agency, who soon referred him to her colleague Luciano Capicchioni. Danilović eventually signed a lucrative contract with Knorr Bologna paying him approximately $900,000 per season.

1992–93 season: Italian champions, Euroleague struggles

Coached by Ettore Messina and playing alongside point guard Roberto Brunamonti and center line of Bill Wennington and Augusto Binelli,^[10] Danilović led the team to the top of the standings in the regular season with a 24–6 record, ahead of former teammate Saša Đorđević's Philips Milano and reigning league champions Benetton Treviso led by Toni Kukoč, before sweeping through the playoffs without a single loss, overcoming Olimpia Pistoia, Clear Cantù, and finally Kukoč's Treviso in the playoff final series to dominantly win the Italian League title. Dueling with his old nemesis from the Yugoslav League, Danilović got the better of Kukoč this time. Establishing himself as Virtus's undisputed leader, Danilović averaged a combined 23.7 points per game over the course of regular season and playoffs.^[11]

In contrast to the domestic league, EuroLeague success proved elusive. The campaign started in early October, but it was the opening group stage game on October 29, 1992, that brought Danilović an uncomfortable away trip to play against Cibona in Zagreb. He thus became the very first Serb to play a competitive game in the newly independent Croatia after the breakup of Yugoslavia while the Yugoslav Wars were in full swing. Rattled by playing in an extremely hostile atmosphere, Danilović had a poor shooting night making 5 of 15 field goals, good for only 12 points as Virtus lost by 16. Talking about the Zagreb experience, later in 1996, Danilović said: "Traveling to the game I assumed there would be issues, but I certainly didn't expect that much hate. Eight thousand people showed up just to insult a Serb. Getting through that game was not easy at all for me and you can tell from my stats. Even their player Franjo Arapović as well as their head coach Aco Petrović were hostile before the game even started wanting to hurl abuse at me, but I managed to put them in their place once we got out on the court. Also I think the two of them realized they had a rematch to play in Bologna in a few months so they didn't want to antagonize me too much".^[4] In the rematch on home court in January 1993, inspired Danilović led the way with 9 of 12 field goal shooting and 23 points as Virtus jumped out to an early lead, recording a 40-point win by the end. Barely making it out of the group stage in the last qualifying spot with a 6–6 record meant that in their quarter-final best-of-three series Virtus would face the top-placed team from the other group – formidable Real Madrid squad led by Arvydas Sabonis. Virtus got blown out by Real, losing the first game on home court at PalaDozza by 20 points with Danilović scoring 4 points while five days later in Madrid, Real finished the job with another convincing victory, this time by 21 points.

1993–94 season: Another league title

In summer 1993, coach Messina left the club to take the head coaching position at the Italy national team with returning coach Alberto Bucci coming in as his replacement at Bologna. The club got a new naming-rights sponsor, non-alcoholic Buckler Beer, as it waited to move into its new arena that was still being built. The roster largely remained the same; the only notable player personnel changes were Wennington's return to the NBA to play for the Chicago Bulls, and the arrival of former NBA player Cliff Levingston from PAOK. With Danilović's contributions to the success of Virtus, he, together with his agent Luciano Capicchioni, also began looking at the NBA as an option again,^[12] but in the end decided to stay put in Bologna for the time being.

The new season, 1993–94, mostly mirrored the previous one as it quickly became clear that no club was a match for Virtus in the Italian League. Jumping to the top of the standings with five straight wins to open the league season, they never relinquished first place until the end, finishing the regular season with the identical 24–6 record from the previous campaign. Well settled in Italy with monikers like lo Zar (the Tzar) and Zar Freddo (the Cold Tzar) given to him by the Italian sports media due to his prowess and calm-under-pressure demeanor on the court as well as inaccessible nature off it, Danilović continued to lead the team. In December 1993, approximately midway through the season, Virtus moved into its newly built 8,650-seat arena PalaMalaguti (which now seats 11,000), located outside of the city core in Casalecchio di Reno.

1995–96 season: making the starting five, wrist injury layoff

Danilović debuted for the Heat on Saturday, November 4, 1995, the opening day of the season, as a starter at the shooting guard position alongside Bimbo Coles, Billy Owens, Kevin Willis, and Alonzo Mourning. He contributed team-high 16 points,^[14] helping his team beat the Cleveland Cavaliers 85–71 before getting ejected towards the end of the game due to an altercation with Cleveland's Chris Mills.^[15] The incident that saw both players thrown out of the game occurred late in fourth quarter, starting with Mills hitting Danilović with a flying elbow to the chin as Danilović was cutting across the baseline, to which Danilović responded by allowing Mills to catch up before elbowing him back in the side of his head, to which Mills then reacted immediately by punching Danilović with a right hook to the jaw, leaving him with a cut lip that required nine stitches outside his mouth and three more inside.^[15][16][17] After the game, Danilović said he was just getting back at Mills after being hit, while Mills claimed Danilović had been playing dirty all game long.^[16] Both players were subsequently fined and suspended by the league – Mills received a one-game suspension and US$10,000 fine while Danilović also got suspended for one game for retaliation in addition to getting fined US$3,500.^[17]

Despite receiving criticism over what some considered overly aggressive play,^[18] the Heat opened the season with an 11–3 record using the starting five of Coles, Danilović, Owens, Willis, and Mourning.^[19] Just as Danilović began hitting his shooting stride in December 1995, averaging 20 points per game in the four contests between December 6–12, 1995,^[20] including season-high 30 points away at Phoenix,^[19][21] his season was disrupted by injury. On December 14, 1995, two days after appearing in the away loss at Golden State during which he scored 15 points^[22] before falling down on the floor and aggravating a previous injury sustained during his time in Italy, Danilović got placed on the team's injured list with right wrist issues that looked to be minor initially. Being an injury he had carried for three years already, Danilović was confident it would calm down again with customary therapy.^[19] However, when the swelling didn't dissipate within weeks as the attempts to rehabilitate his wrist through therapy failed, it became apparent that the injury was more serious this time, requiring attention of a specialist.^[23] Danilović's frustration of being on the sidelines with an injury that showed no signs of improving was evident on December 23, 1995. During halftime of an away game at Charlotte that he watched in street clothes from the bench, he was signing autographs near the tunnel leading to the locker rooms when an unruly fan began verbally abusing him; Danilović reacted by confronting the fan physically and had to be restrained by the Heat executive Randy Pfund.^[24] On January 2, 1996, Danilović went in for surgery performed by hand specialist Dr. Ann Ouelette at South Miami Hospital to repair a non-union of the scaphoid bone on his right hand.^[19] The surgery was successful, but with his hand in a cast and the recovery process expected to last 3–4 months, there were doubts about whether Danilović's season was over. In early February 1996, with his recovery schedule plan to be back in action for the final month of the regular season, Danilović was allowed to leave the team and go back to visit his family in Italy and FR Yugoslavia.^[25] During Danilović's layoff, the Heat completely overhauled their roster including their early season starting lineup. On February 23, 1996, the team made three trades in the same day, bringing in Tim Hardaway and Chris Gatling from Golden State for Bimbo Coles and Kevin Willis, then getting Walt Williams and Tyrone Corbin from Sacramento for Billy Owens and Kevin Gamble, and finally acquiring Tony Smith from Phoenix for Terrence Rencher.^[26]

The projections of Danilović coming back from injury at the beginning of April 1996 proved overly optimistic as his return took place on April 21, 1996, at home versus Atlanta, the Heat's last game of the regular season. Very rusty after four months on the sidelines during which he missed 62 games, Danilović, who had in the meantime also lost his spot in Miami's starting five to Rex Chapman, put up modest 8 points during 25 minutes of action off the bench on 3 for 9 shooting from the field that included airballing his first shot back after the injury layoff and coming up well short on his first 3-point shot as Miami lost 92–104.^[20] The Heat ended the season with 42–40 record, qualifying for the playoffs as the eight-placed team in the Eastern Conference where they would face the juggernaut Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls team that had lost only 10 games the entire season.

Making his NBA playoffs debut only five days after coming back from months-long injury layoff, Danilović began on the bench as coach Riley continued with Chapman as the starter at shooting guard. The Serb had another poor post-injury outing, scoring only 3 points in 22 minutes on 1 for 3 from the field as Miami got blown out 102–85 by the Bulls.^[27] Two days later, game two of the series brought a much improved performance by Danilović who scored team-high 15 points off the bench in 23 minutes; however, the Heat still suffered an even worse blowout, this time by 31 points.^[28] The series then shifted to Miami, and the rampant Bulls converted on their first opportunity to end the series, beating the Heat easily for the third time in a row, 112–91, as Danilović, playing on reduced minutes, scored 7 points.^[29]