From the age of 15, Dražen Petrović was a professional basketball player in Europe, and by the time he was 18, he was one of the best players on the continent. He dominated throughout his teens and early 20s to firmly place his name in greatest European basketball player of all time conversation by the age of 25. He was a hero in Yugoslavia and in Spain, and he along with future NBA players like Vlade Divac, Toni Kukoc and Dino Radja made up a dominant Yugoslavian National team, until the Yugoslav wars drove them apart. But in 1990, Petrovic decided he needed a new challenge and would join the Portland Trailblazers in the NBA who had drafted him in 1986. But Portland was a well established team with Clyde Drexler and Terry Porter in the backcourt, as Petrovic spent much more time on the bench than he did on the floor. Even though the Blazers made the 1990 NBA Finals, Petrovic wasn’t a huge part of the rotation and had an even smaller role in 1991. But a mid season trade that sent him to the New Jersey Nets changed his whole career. He finally got a chance to be a starter and would join forces with other young stars like Derrick Coleman and Kenny Anderson and the team was on the rise in the early 90s with Petrovic emerging as one of the league’s top scorers. Additionally, he was the best player on the Croatian National team who put together the best performance vs. the 1992 US Dream Team at the summer Olympics. But in the Prime of his career at 28 years old, Petrovic was killed in a car accident in Germany, ending his NBA career before it really started. In North America, Petrovic is most remembered for his brief time with the Nets and what they could have been, but too often is his legendary European career discounted, and you can’t tell the full story of Petrovic’s greatness without including this portion.

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