Dražen Petrović is one of the best European basketball players of all time
Dražen Petrović is one of the best European basketball players of all time who has achieved great success in his career, both at club and national team levels. He will forever be remembered for his skills, winning mentality and a unique way of playing. He was also a player ahead of his time and was rightfully nicknamed the “Mozart of basketball.” Unfortunately, due to his tragic death, he was unable to achieve even more on the basketball court.
Path to first success
Dražen Petrović started his career in Šibenik, where he was born on October 22, 1964. His older brother Aleksandar, who was already on his way to becoming a great player, made him fall in love with basketball.
Dražen proved himself to be a great talent very quickly, and his approach to practicing was particularly impressive. He was known for putting in many hours of hard work every day and perfecting his every move, and especially his shot. However, only a few could have predicted that he would become one of the best basketball players in our region and Europe.
He started playing for the junior basketball squad of Šibenka very early at the age of 13, and for the seniors at the age of 15. Three years later, most Yugoslav clubs were trying to acquire him, and he chose Cibona, where his brother Aleksandar was already playing. The two of them formed an exceptional basketball tandem on the court.
With Cibona, he won the Yugoslav championship and the national cup in 1985, and then became the European club champion after defeating Real Madrid in the final. Dražen scored 36 points in an unforgettable performance. The following year, Cibona defended the European title, defeating Lithuanian Žalgiris in the final.
Incredible performances in the national team
Of course, Dražen also had great results with the former Yugoslavian national team, with which he won, among other things, the silver Olympic medal in Seoul in 1988 and later two more gold medals – one at Eurobasket in 1989 and the other at the World cup in 1990. All this made that generation of Yugoslav basketball a global powerhouse.
Winning the World cup in Buenos Aires was especially memorable. The victory in that final served as a revenge to the Soviet Union team who defeat them in the Olympics final two years earlier. This success ended Dražen’s appearances for Yugoslavia, as Croatia declared independence in 1991.
Dražen thus continued his national team journey in a Croatian jersey. The Croatian national team played its first official games in 1992, during the qualifiers for the Olympics in Barcelona.
The national team made it all the way to the finals, where they faced the American Dream Team consisting of Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Charles Barkley, Scottie Pippen, John Stockton and others.
The Croats had to admit to the Americans that they were better. The final score was 85:117, Dražen scored 24 points, and the team could look with pride at the silver Olympic medal they won!
NBA career
Despite the fact that there was interest for him in the USA as early as in 1986, when Portland drafted him, Dražen did not immediately rush to the other side of the Atlantic ocean. Instead, he signed a contract with Real Madrid in 1988 – reportedly worth a then-astronomical $4 million.
Although it was a multi-year contract, Petrović stayed at the Spanish club for only one season. After winning the Spanish Cup and the European Cup Winners’ Cup, he decided it was time for new challenges and accepted the offer from the Trail Blazers.
He left Europe as one of the most decorated players with numerous personal records, and one of the most impressive is the 112 points he scored against Olimpija from Ljubljana. He also dropped 62 in the aforementioned European Cup Winners’ Cup final.
With his new team, he immediately made it all the way to the NBA Finals, where they eventually lost to Detroit. However, things in the American Northwest did not look good for Dražen and he was traded to the Nets (former New Jersey, currently Brooklyn).
Dražen immediately took advantage of the opportunity in a new environment, where he was able to prove that, even though he was from Europe, he could play an important role in the American professional league. By the end of the season, he played in 43 games, in which he scored 12.6 points per game during 20.5 minutes on the court, thus again proving his exceptional abilities.
Over the next two seasons, he improved his average to over 20 and then 22 points per game, respectively, and became one of the team’s main players along with Derrick Coleman and Kenny Anderson. Here, he also proved himself as one of the best three-point shooters, because after 3 seasons with the Nets, he was connecting on 43.7% of his long-range attempts.
A tragic end
He played his final game in Wroclaw, Poland, where on June 6th, 1993, Croatia played against the Slovenian national team in the Eurobasket qualifiers.
The next day (June 7th 1993), Dražen decided that he would not return home with his teammates, but instead in a private car together with his partner Klara Szalantzy and her friend Hilal Edebal. Unfortunately, they did not reach their destination. A truck hit their car near Ingolstadt. Dražen, who was asleep, flew out of the passenger seat through the windshield and died at the scene of the accident, while both female passengers suffered serious injuries.
A legend forever
Even before his tragic death, Dražen received the highest Croatian “Franjo Bučar” award for achievements in sports in 1992, and ten years later, in 2002, he was posthumously awarded with a lifetime achievement award. That same year, he was enshrined to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
In 2006, the Croatian Olympic Committee established an award for outstanding achievements in the field of sports named after Dražen. In 2006, the “Dražen Petrović” museum and memorial center was opened in Zagreb, near the basketball arena that also bears his name and where he led Cibona to global fame.
