Season 1992/1993. for the New Jersey Nets ended on May 9 with a loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers in the decisive game of the first round of the playoffs. The American media had only one “target” after the game, and that was Croatian basketball player Dražen Petrović.
Dražen had a great season behind him during which he recorded 22.3 points on averagewhich was one of the best averages in the league. Nevertheless, to his disappointment not chosen for All-Star match.
His dissatisfaction was influenced by the Nets themselves, with whom he could not come to an agreement of the new contract. As the season progressed, dissatisfaction grew, and it didn’t help much that it was selected in the third best five for that season. Considering all that, it is not surprising that after the defeat against Cleveland, Dražen was a sought-after interlocutor.
I’m in the NBA proved everything I wanted to proveDražen said briefly to the assembled journalists, took his bag and walked out of the hall.
Dražen Petrović, the first great European player in the NBA and one of the greatest European players in history, he will never enter the NBA Hall of Fame again.
After the end of the NBA season, Dražen headed to gathering of the national team which was preparing for the trip to Wroclaw, Poland, where the qualifying tournament for the European Championship was held in Germany. Croatia would have qualified for the Euros without him, but Dražen never missed national team meetings, so he didn’t want to even now despite his injured knee. The national team was sacred to him and missing the qualifying tournament was out of the question.
In Poland, Dražen wanted to use i peace of mind to think about continuing your career. There was no shortage of offers for a player of that caliber, European clubs wanted to take advantage of his dissatisfaction in the NBA and try to attract him with good financial conditions. The leader in the race was Greek Panathinaikos.
According to Todd Spehr in his excellent book about Dražen, Panathinaikos had two important factors in its favor. The first was that he was on their roster Stojko VrankovićDražen’s closest friend from the national team. The other, Panathinaikos was training at the time Željko Pavlicevicwho trained Dražen in Cibona.
Dražen was one of the best players in the 1992/1993 season
Dražen gave his last interview to a Greek journalist and friend Vassilis Skountis.
I made up my mind back to Europe for the next two years. In 1995 I want to return to the NBA for two years, after which I will finish his career in Cibona. Also, I plan to get marriedsaid Dražen about his future.
In that conversation, he also admitted that he was near the signing of the contract with Panathinaikos.
We are very close indeed. I want a third European Champions Cup more than anything else. I won two with Cibona in 1985 and 1986, and right now I really want to go back to Europe and win more titles. It must be clear to you that I do not play exclusively for money. I’d rather win playing for free rather than lose by getting rich. I promise you that Panathinaikos will become a completely different teamconcluded Dražen.
Yes, the best Croatian basketball player he was not needed by his national team in Wroclaw it was clear right from the start of the qualifying tournament. In the first six games, Croatia won only one by less than 29 points. She lost only one game, the last one against Slovenia, which had no significance. June 7, 1993Croatia left Poland. They first landed in Frankfurt, from where they were supposed to return to Zagreb on the second flight.
Dražen informed the selectors Mirko Novosela how a girl is waiting for him in the car Klara Szalantzy with whom he will go to Munich, but that he will appear at training in Zagreb on Wednesday. He said goodbye to his teammates and coach and headed for the exit of the airport.
The national team was sacred to him and missing the qualifying tournament was out of the question
In front of the airport, a red Golf was waiting for him in which Szalantzy, a model, was sitting in the driver’s seat, while in the back seat was Hilal Edebala talented basketball player and the three of them set off for Munich. Just before 17:20 not far from Ingolstadtas Todd Spehr writes in his book, a truck driver from the Netherlands was traveling on the highway when he was forced to swerve to avoid a car that skidded on the road due to heavy rainfall and headed into his lane. He broke through the protective barrier which divided traffic from opposite directions. After he regained his composure and realized it was his vehicle blocked all three lanes that lead to the south, he got out and stood on the side, trying to get the attention of the drivers who were going towards Munich by waving.
The Golf driven by Szalantzy was approaching the truck at high speed. Spehr refers to an accident report in which a third passenger, Hilal Edebal, stated that her friend driving too fast and that at that moment she was going 180 kilometers per hour. She was trying to brake, but at that speed on the very slippery road she had no chance. The Golf skidded, hit a guardrail, bounced back onto the road and passenger side of the vehicle crashed into the truck.
He is loved was asleep at the time of the impact. The hand on his watch stopped at 17:20, and the basketball Mozart never woke up again…
The world also stopped. The funeral was held four days later at Zagreb’s Mirogoj cemetery, and according to some estimates, gathered around 100,000 people. The Nets retired his jersey number 3he was admitted to the basketball hall of fame, the hall was named after him, he got his own museum, various monuments were made in his honor, etc. But it is not his greatest legacy.
After reading the text for the first time, I realized that I was Dražena through the entire text addressed by nameand not just by the last name with which we address most of today’s athletes. Why this is so, he may best describe the experience of his mother Biserka.
One day at the cemetery, while she was kneeling over her son’s grave, an elderly man with a three-year-old granddaughter approached her and addressed her words which will be remembered for a lifetime.
You gave birth to him, but he belonged to all of us.
Life flies, Captain.
(www.jabuka.tv | Luka Šurkalović)
