Drazen Petrovic
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Template:Titlelacksdiacritics Dražen Petrović (October 22, 1964 - June 7, 1993) was a successful basketball player from Croatia.
Born in Šibenik, he started playing for his local club Šibenka. With Petrović in the squad in 1979, Šibenka's U-16 squad was a leading competitor in the Yugoslav championships and had reached the final of the Radivoj Korać Cup twice. Petrović also regularly played for Yugoslav national team in the U-18 Balkan Championship, winning all three medals in the period between 1980 and 1984.
As a senior Petrović moved to Cibona, Zagreb and won both the Yugoslav championship and the cup in 1985. Cibona continued to be rather successful at home and abroad in the following years, and Petrović was also a participant of the 1984 Summer Olympics where Yugoslavia won the bronze, as well as the World Championship of 1986 and the European Championship of 1987. In the 1988 Summer Olympics he got an Olympic silver medal, a feat he would repeat in the 1992 Summer Olympics but this time for Croatia instead of former Yugoslavia. But before that, they also won the European Championship in 1989 and the World Championship in 1990.
In 1989 Petrović moved to the Spanish Real Madrid which was also a winner at home and in Europe. In 1990, he moved to Portland Trail Blazers after being the 60th pick in the 1986 NBA Draft, and played in the NBA finals with them. In 1991 he moved to New Jersey Nets, earning a place in the All-NBA Third Team in 1993.
Dražen Petrović's very promising career was abruptly interrupted when he died in a car crash on a highway near Ingolstadt, Germany in 1993. The Cibona stadium was renamed the "Dražen Petrović" Basketball Hall on October 4th, 1993, and the city of Zagreb dedicated a square in his name.
He was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2002.
External link
- Dražen Petrović at the Basketball Hall of Fame (http://www.hoophall.com/halloffamers/petrovic_drazen.htm)
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