Before he went onto the NBA in 1989, Drazen Petrovic was a legendary player in Europe. A 6’5″ shooting guard with awesome range as well as an ability to get to the basket, he was a tough scoring force to stop. Most basketball fans are aware of his tragic death on June 7, 1993 — a car accident in Germany cut short one of the greatest European careers in NBA basketball that was just getting off its feet.
Here is footage of Petrovic in 1987/88 scoring 49 points for Cibona Zagreb against basketball powerhouse, Maccabi Tel Aviv. Just to give you a bit of extra information, the commentator is Dan Peterson, an American who relocated to Italy many years ago and who is considered something along the lines of Marv Albert crossed with Pat Riley in Italy. Thus, the Italian he is speaking here is not the fastest you’ll find, but very good nonetheless. He describes how Petrovic is the best player in Europe right now and how his 49 points is a record, or certainly the highest he had seen against Milanese teams.
Also check out: Oscar Schmidt vs Drazen Petrovic
Here is some bonus footage of Drazen (Portland Trail Blazers) in a jump-ball against Vlade Divac (Los Angeles Lakers) in 1990. You’ve got to love those short shorts!
Many thanks to crohoops.com for the youtube uploads.
