Maybe Mozart and basketball don’t have coincidences. However, just putting those two words together in an Internet search engine will automatically trigger Drazen Petrovic’s name. The Croatian, who would turn 56 today, was considered a unique piece in this sport. On the court, his talent allowed a team to sound like a true symphony.
Petrovic was capable of scoring more than 100 points in the same game; He was involved to the core in the independence of his country and the war in Yugoslavia, he was World Champion in Argentina 1990, he was the brother and enemy of Vlade Divac, a murderer shooting at the hoop, an angel off the court and a demon inside her. He passed away 25 years ago, with just 28 on his calendar and while he was sleeping as a co-driver for his girlfriend (Klara Szalantzy, now Oliver Bierhoff’s wife), who was driving on a route in Germany to Zagreb. Tragic, illogical, absurd and a farewell with thousands and thousands of people in dismay on the streets of Sibenik and Cibona. A bonfire of skill that will never go out. A source of inspiration in the NBA.
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“The enduring thing about his legacy was the way he paved the way for players from around the world.” The words of former NBA commissioner David Stern are accurate, although what remains unchanged is the assessment of what Petrovic was capable of doing on a playing field and also outside. Because he could spend hours in a gym taking 200, 300 or 500 free throws, from medium and long distance. In the same way that it seemed impossible to get him out of his home in Herrera Oria, when he was a Real Madrid player. One of those “weird guys”, who are not too interested in connecting with the rest of his team, but being the best at what he does. An eloquent fact: Drazen never returned home without making 100 triples first.
A 44-point game against the Houston Rockets
That Golf GTI in which he was traveling on June 7, 1993, when he lost his life, flies over like a lacerating image for Biserka, Drazen’s mother. A tough woman with a tremendous character, who inherited her youngest son. The story goes that in 1987, in a match between Yugoslavia and the United States, a coup fight broke out that ended with Petrovic rolling on the ground. Biserka was in the stands looking at everything and could not contain herself. Then he jumped onto the field and distributed umbrellas everywhere, with the aim of running to those who hit his son. The security agents guarding the University of Zagreb, where the match was taking place, had to remove her.
Petrovic knew an irrepressible whirlwind. He was confident that he was capable of anesthetizing rivals with his firepower by shooting at the hoop. He challenged Michael Jordan himself when he was in front of him and he fell in love with Stephen Curry. When the Warriors star was 3 years old, he saw him participate in the triple competition at the All Star in Orlando in 1992 and from there he was inspired by the Croatian to be today a serial killer in the NBA with his long distance shots. As a tribute, in 2015, Curry donated one of his Golden State jerseys with the 30 on the back to the Petrovic Museum.
A duel with Michael Jordan
First, the Portland Trail Blazers incorporated him to the NBA, but the Croatian suffered from not having minutes and deployed all his weapons in the New Jersey Nets. There he seemed possessed, just like when he played in Europe: in a match with Cibona against Olimpija de Ljubljana he scored 112 points and in the 89 Cup Winners’ Cup final he scored 62 with Real Madrid against Snaidero Caserta. He also impressed in Argentina when he arrived with Cibona Zagreb to play the Renato Williams Jones Cup in 1986 (the Club World Cup), in which Obras, Ferro, Monte Libano and Corinthians from Brazil and the powerful Zaligiris Kaunas, with Arvydas, also participated. Sabonis. Many keep Petrovic’s magic on the pitch in their retinas in those games, because there was talk of the Croatian demon flying on the pitch and everyone wanted to know what that phenomenon was about.
The 62 points with Real Madrid
Many remember him as a character from those tame complexes. He could not bear to have someone smoke nearby and even argued loudly because his representative had signed a contract with the Winston cigarette brand. Nor did he drink alcohol because it was bad for his muscles and he was motivated by the chorus of the song that they began to sing to him in Spain after not wanting to sign a contract with Barcelona: “son of a father.” Some even claim that he had that tribune melody recorded and listened to it before the hottest games.
No emotion could get in the way when he was on the court. In 1989, during the semi-final of the Recopa, Real Madrid, led by Drazen, visited the Cibona, where his brother Aza played. The Spanish team lost by one point (88-89), they fouled Drazen, he took the two free throws and his brother, reading that they were going to eliminate them in Madrid (it was the first leg at Cibona), told him that failed to at least charge the premium. Drazen looked at him and made both shots.
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It could arouse the annoyance of anyone and had powerful ideas. He did not hesitate to break relations with his friend Divac, after the remembered incident of the Croatian flag thrown by the Serbian pivot after the coronation in the 1990 World Cup in Argentina in the middle of the war in Yugoslavia. Just as he was able to rile up players in the category of Reggie Miller, considered one of the best shooters in the history of the NBA. “It made me very nervous, I did not understand what he was saying most of the time. When you came out of a blockage he would start telling you everything and he could do it in up to four languages. You would go to dial it and it smelled like he had never showered. I couldn’t stand it. Without a doubt, he was my nemesis. The best shooter I have ever seen. I always considered myself the best shooter in history, but seriously, if there is any player who surpassed me, it was Drazen Petrovic. “
October 22, 1964 or June 7, 1993 will always be two dates impossible to forget. It is that the footprint of Drazen Petrovic was so important that many did not hesitate to assure that he was the Mozart of basketball, a demon on the court, the Genius of Sibenik or the best shooter in history …
