On this day 29 years ago, Croatian basketball legend Dražen Petrović played the game of his career.
If you’re not familiar with Dražen Petrović (which we might find hard to believe), allow us to refresh your memory. Dražen Petrović was a Šibenik-born basketball player and one of the best symbols of Croatia’s undeniable talent in sports. A shooting guard, Petrović’s career began at the young age of 13 at his local club Šibenka. Moving quickly up the ranks to join the club’s first team, Dražen was not just the star but played the final of the FIBA Radivoj Korać Cup twice. From Šibenka Petrović moved to Cibona, winning the Yugoslav League championship and the Yugoslav National Cup in his first year with the club - and a win against Spain’s Real Madrid gave Cibona their first European Cup title. Dražen scored 36 points that game.
After his time at Cibona where Dražen regularly achieved 40, 50, and even 60 points during a game, a move to Real Madrid was imminent. Though at the time, the NBA’s Portland Trailblazers were looking to sign the 23-year-old player. Thanks to the laws in Yugoslavia at the time which didn't allow players a move abroad to play professionally until 28, settling for Real Madrid was his better option.
Fortunately for Dražen, the 1988-89 season at Real Madrid would not only see him lead the team to the Spanish King's Cup and the 2nd-tier European Cup Winners' Cup, but Dražen would play the game of his career.
In the final of the European Cup Winners Cup, with an incredible 62 baskets, Dražen led Real Madrid to the victory over Snaidero Caserta (117:113) which, by far, is his best match in the history of European basketball.
In the duel of geniuses Oscar Schmidt and Dražen Petrovic, in front of 12,000 spectators in Piraeus, Schmidt finished the match with 44 points for Snaidero while Dražen scored 62 for Real Madrid.
The game, however, was almost a tragedy for Real Madrid. Tied 102:102 with just seconds before the end, Fernando ‘Nando’ Gentile was given a chance to settle the game for Snaidero Caserta, but the Italian missed a three-pointer which sent the game into extra time. There, Dražen scored 11 points to make Real Madrid champions.
Dražen’s stats for the game looked a little something like this: 62 baskets, 8/16 three-pointers, 12/24 two-pointers, and 14/15 on free throws. In his nine appearances in that Cup, he scored 281 baskets, which is an incredible average of 31.2 baskets per game. Dražen scored the same number of points for Cibona the year before in the Radivoja Korać Cup, and let’s not forget his record-breaking match in 1985 against Olimpija where he scored 112 points.
Though Dražen’s name was made known first with his success in Europe in the 1980s, he was a star on every court he graced. He won the Olympic bronze for Yugoslavia in 1984, the silver in Seoul in 1988, and the Olympic silver for Croatia in 1992. His NBA career began at the Portland Trailblazers before moving to the New Jersey Nets where he was selected for the All-NBA Third Team, with a ranking among the top 13 scorers in the NBA that season. Dražen has his name in the Basketball Hall of Fame, and just five years ago, players at the 2013 FIBA EuroBasket voted Dražen the best European Basketball player in history.
Dražen’s life was tragically cut short on June 7, 1993, when he was killed in a car accident in Germany at just 28-years-old, and while we mark 25 years since his death this year, it has never been more evident that his legacy will carry on for generations to come.
Excerpts taken from Index.hr
