R.I.P. Drazen Petrovic

[SportsGuy8]

Today's Adriatic league (teams from all ex-Yu countries) is nowhere near the level it was 20 years ago, same for Italian league (which was very strong back in the day). Basketball only really significantly gained popularity in countries where it was almost non-existent 20 years ago.

thats because players could not leave the country like now. every super talent is now playing abroad at very young age.

Yes and in the long run, that also has a major effect on the talent-base. Without a strong local league and/or big clubs, whole basketball suffers tremendously and it shows in the total nose-dive of basketball's popularity in ex-Yu countries.

Yugoslavia was basically the major source of European basketball talent in the last 50 years or so, but I worry about the future. At it's peak, virtually every tall kid at least tried basketball, nowadays many most talented tall kids pursue other sports - not just other sports that require height (like volleyball), but also soccer, since soccer is starting to really value height.

[Baseline Runner]

Ok guys, thank you for a great discussion, I'm gonna comment some things being said..

Reggie Miller: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EUo5p6D990
Lebron: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKxsBgK6pck

For those who say Dirk is the best international player ever, I see where you're coming from and I can't argue with that.. Dirk has had far more better career and accomplishments, but I just have one important argument.. It was 1989.. Drazen was one of the first int players ever to come to NBA.. He gave the path to the others.. Do you think Dirk would succeed in 1989? He would get killed by Bird, Barkley and other PFs and Cs in the league.. I don't think he would last 2 years in the NBA back then..

And finally, the documentary you are all talking about: Once brothers..
The documentary is fine, but it is too political and americanized.. By that, I mean that they made Vlade look like a victim, and you kind of feel sorry for him, but at the end he is the good guy and gets his happy end. Classic american production..

I repeat, nothing is wrong with it facts wise, but its too political.. Nobody knows what was going on here in Croatia during the war except us, and it can never be filmed properly..
The doc was focused on their friendship and how it fell apart because of the war, basketball is just a sporadic topic and circumstance. It shouldn't be that way..
If you want to see real story about Drazen and a thing he loved the most in the world - basketball, then you should look for other documentaries about his life, or clips where he scored 42 against Houston, 34 on Jordan etc..

Did the American producers create the scene where the bronze medal Croatian team walked off the podium like sore losers while Yugoslavia was being awarded the gold? Was that special effects or did they actually act like sore losers?

I'm not from that region and I appreciate the documentaries like this don't always tell the whole story but to be honest I think this particular film did a good job trying to be fair. You have a serbian-born player that was shunned by his former croatian teammates admitting that he made a horrible mistake when he disrespected the flag. Not only that but despite all the bad blood he didn't say a single negative thing about your country. This entire movie is really about how an amazing croatian player died at a young age and how the war impacted both sides. If you want to see a truly biased documentary try watching some about the middle east.

You are an a**hole.. That's what I can say to you really..
If you even read my post, I said that documentary is correct about everything FACT wise, but it shouldn't have been about politics and war, but about Drazen's (and Vlade's) basketball life. They wanted to make it more dramatic and they built it around the war.. - which is not something that croats and serbs want to rembember these days..
It might be fun to you, but stepping down from the podium is nothing compared to their political aggression and starting the war in our country, attacking us, burning our homes, killing civilians and whatever happened at that time.. That was the reason behind that act, not the fact that they disrespected their basketball team.

I specifically said that this thread should be about Drazen and basketball, and you are now making it war discussion..
Now if you wanna be a prick again, be my guest..

Maybe not so much a prick as just very ignorant.

[BAMartian]

Right, I'm the prick.

Look, as others already pointed this isn't a movie strictly about Drazen. That's not what this movie is about and that's not what the filmmakers set out to make.Otherwise it wouldn't be called "Once Brothers", would it?

And how am I ignorant? I'm not picking sides but I refuse to pretend like it's okay for people that used to be teammates to act like that (on both sides) regardless of the social political tensions back home. At the end of the day we're just a bunch of monkeys fighting over imaginary lines on the ground or imaginary gods in the sky. These people had an opportunity to rise up above the political pressures and acknowledge the fact that they're all the same. They come from the same general region, they speak practically the same language and before politics tore the country apart they were on the same team. If that's ignorant then I'm sorry you feel that way but the longer we empathize with this crap the longer the world is going to be a massive warzone.

[Mamba Venom]

45% from downtown back to back years WOW

3rd team proud to be top 15 players before his death.

Stupid semi driver went into other lane and caused a fatal accident instead of staying in his lane and hitting a vehicle going the same direction.

[mvpshaq32]

Dear members, as you may know, today is the 20th anniversary of the death of my compatriot Drazen Petrovic.

This is the day that 20 years ago changed the course of Croatian basketball - downhill.

Reggie Miller, Lebron, and many other consider him the best European player ever to play in the NBA.

I just wanted to share this to you, and give you an opportunity to share some stories and thoughts with me about our late Captain.

RIP Dražen.. Life goes by captain..

Sorry, but Lebron was 5 years old when Petrovic came into the league so I don't think he can say Petro is the best Euro of all time.

Watched the documentary and damn he was an outstanding shooter and crafty player.

[SportsGuy8]

Sorry, but Lebron was 5 years old when Petrovic came into the league so I don't think he can say Petro is the best Euro of all time.

Wilt's prime lasted 'till late 60s, so nobody who was born later can say he's the best, or even one of the best of all time, including over 99% of this board.

Also, half of this board was probably less than 5 when Jordan was in his prime, so using your logic, they can't say Jordan is the best.

Makes perfect sense.

P.s.: Based on LeBron's own statements, he's a giant basketball nut, so we can assume he probably watched lots and lots of older games, and if that's the case, he actually possesses enough data to make an educated conclusion regarding Petrovic. For all we know, maybe he even watched a couple of Drazen's Euro games.

[Eoghan]

Finally saw Once Brothers. Man, I sobbed like a little girl. If anybody wants to read more about that subject, there is a great chapter on it in Alexander Wolff's book Big Game, Small World - A Basketball Adventure



I was just getting into basketball at that time so I don't remember Drazen much, unfortunately. I remember dude being ridiculously wet as a shooter and crafty as hell. Great player. I wish Croatia, Serbia and the whole former Yugoslavia was still churning players like that again.

[Mehar]

If you haven't seen the 30 For 30 "Once Brothers", please take an hour to watch it this weekend if you have Netflix. You don't need to even be a basketball fan to enjoy the documentary (told through the eyes of Vlade Divac). It gives you the whole story of Petrovic and the problems in Serbia/Croatia. Very heart felt...extremely well done too.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

Truly an amazing piece of work. I am 30 years old now, and have been following basketball since i was 8, so i remember watching Drazen play, and remember when it was announced he passed away. Truly a sad day for a guy with such a bright future ahead. R.I.P.

[mvpshaq32]

Sorry, but Lebron was 5 years old when Petrovic came into the league so I don't think he can say Petro is the best Euro of all time.

Wilt's prime lasted 'till late 60s, so nobody who was born later can say he's the best, or even one of the best of all time, including over 99% of this board.

Also, half of this board was probably less than 5 when Jordan was in his prime, so using your logic, they can't say Jordan is the best.

Makes perfect sense.

P.s.: Based on LeBron's own statements, he's a giant basketball nut, so we can assume he probably watched lots and lots of older games, and if that's the case, he actually possesses enough data to make an educated conclusion regarding Petrovic. For all we know, maybe he even watched a couple of Drazen's Euro games.

It does make sense. Maybe not 99%, but I'm sure plenty of people on this board have never actually seen Wilt's highlights and just take for a fact he's one of the greatest because his reputation carries down from word of mouth.

But for Lebron to claim he's the best despite not having played against him doesn't add any credibility to Petro's legacy.

[Kova]

Right, I'm the prick.

Look, as others already pointed this isn't a movie strictly about Drazen. That's not what this movie is about and that's not what the filmmakers set out to make.Otherwise it wouldn't be called "Once Brothers", would it?

And how am I ignorant? I'm not picking sides but I refuse to pretend like it's okay for people that used to be teammates to act like that (on both sides) regardless of the social political tensions back home. At the end of the day we're just a bunch of monkeys fighting over imaginary lines on the ground or imaginary gods in the sky. These people had an opportunity to rise up above the political pressures and acknowledge the fact that they're all the same. They come from the same general region, they speak practically the same language and before politics tore the country apart they were on the same team. If that's ignorant then I'm sorry you feel that way but the longer we empathize with this crap the longer the world is going to be a massive warzone.

I know the movie is about Vlade and how his relationship with Drazen fell apart because of the war.. BUT, him being a leading role, his (and Serbians) mistakes were minimized, while Drazen's (and croatians) were maximized. Just to make vlade look like a victim and a good guy..
And you fell for it.. That's all I'm saying.. I never really said anything about some stories in the movie being wrong and made up..

[ATL Boy]

I agree that the movie minimized the mistakes of the Serbians, it was the Serbians that started the war and they were the aggressors throughout the entire war. First they attacked Slovenia but got their butts kicked and retreated after a week, then Croatia but after a few years of very bad violence Serbians retreated. No country suffered as much as Bosnia though, it was a 4 year ordeal for Bosnia where Serbians tried to ethnically cleanse the area of all Muslims, there was the siege of Sarajevo and then the brutal Srebrenica Massacre where over 7000 Bosnians were killed. Many (including my family) fled to Germany and the United States. It was a really sad part of history.

[sanitylaker]

He was a great player in Europe, but in the NBA I don't think he was better than Drexler.

He gets massively overrated because of his death.

[ATL Boy]

He was a great player in Europe, but in the NBA I don't think he was better than Drexler.

He gets massively overrated because of his death.

Of course he wasn't better than Drexler, noone said he was. Clyde the Glide was arguably a top 5 Shooting Guard in History and that's why Drazen left for New Jersey, because he couldn't start with Clyde there. Drexler did notice how good and competitive Drazen was in practice and did all he could to try and convince Petro to stay in Portland and be a little patient because this was gonna be his team when Drexler and Porter got up there in age

I will agree that with his death everyone rallied around him and the question became one of potential instead of production in the NBA (he did have great NBA production don't get me wrong). It's a common theme in American History that when someone dies people rally around him and his/her cause: examples: JFK, Dr. Martin Luther King, FDR, Ronald Reagan (Reagan didn't die but a near death experience made America rally around him nonetheless).

[Kova]

True.. Again, this thread isn't about comparisons.. It's about Draz and what basketball meant to him, and what he meant to Croatian people..

[WhateverBro]

He was a great player in Europe, but in the NBA I don't think he was better than Drexler.

He gets massively overrated because of his death.

Well, what you're saying is basically "Drazen wasn't a top 5 SG of all-time". Well, duh. It doesn't matter if he wasn't better than Drexler; Drazen is still one of the best european players of all-time and proved that he was able to be an all-nba type of player in the NBA.

[Nuntius]

The quality of play really wasn't that much different. European basketball being that much worse at that time is just a general misconception among general American public. The original 1992 Dream Team really didn't influence it THAT much, even though American basketball commentators keep bringing it up time and time again. And since that notion was repeated again and again and again, people started accepting it as truth, go figure.

American public would have a much different opinion about European basketball if there were full Yugoslav & Soviet teams playing at the Barcelona Olympics, instead we saw broken up teams who also lacked depth (because they were from tiny new countries - Croatia, Lithuania).

Those Yugoslav & Soviet teams were very good, especially Yugoslavia. They would put up a much better fight vs. the Dream Team, compared to just Croatia. That Yugoslav team would have had much more depth, not to mention that they were a well oiled machine with lots of practice together (compared to Croatia, who was a new team). Besides, coach Ivkovic was the most important person on that Yugoslav team, while Divac was arguably the most important player, more than Petrovic & Kukoc (since he gave them a much needed inside presence).

If anything, you can make a strong case that basketball actually lost in popularity in Europe, and is arguably less popular now than it was BEFORE 1992 Olympics. Basketball was an extremely popular sport in both Yugoslavia & Soviet Union, now it's nowhere near as popular (that's especially true for ex-Yu countries) and it keeps getting worse and worse, similar in Italy. And these 3 countries were main European basketball powerhouses back in the day, along Greece.

Today's Adriatic league (teams from all ex-Yu countries) is nowhere near the level it was 20 years ago, same for Italian league (which was very strong back in the day). Basketball only really significantly gained popularity in countries where it was almost non-existent 20 years ago.

You are absolutely, 100% right. Great post

One of the few countries that were formed after the Yugoslavian and the Soviet splits that didn't lose interest in basketball is Lithuania. But that was pretty much it.

[Nuntius]

No country suffered as much as Bosnia though, it was a 4 year ordeal for Bosnia where Serbians tried to ethnically cleanse the area of all Muslims, there was the siege of Sarajevo and then the brutal Srebrenica Massacre where over 7000 Bosnians were killed. Many (including my family) fled to Germany and the United States. It was a really sad part of history.

True. Bosnia is almost completley landlocked by Croatia and Serbia and thus was caught in the middle of the war. And then you also have the existence of Republika Srpska and Herzeg-Bosnia on Bosnian soil and thus both sides were fighting over the control of the region completelly massacring the local population. You also had the religious difference between Bosniaks (mainly Muslim) and Croats & Serbs (mainly Christians, although Croats are Catholic while Serbs are Orthodox) to cap it all off.

I mean, you even had foreign volunteers like the detestable Greek Volunteer Guard that was mostly comprised of neo-nazis (or mercenaries) that felt the need to support their "Orthodox brethren". Heck, Radovan Karadžić was invited to Athens by our own Archbishop and a rally was thrown for him that was attended by some other Greek politicians. I'm glad that I'm not a Christian seeing those "Christian" actions taking place. Just smh

In any case, I just wanted to tell you that you are indeed right in what you said. It must have been awful for you. You were dealt with the worst possible hand

Anyway, enough about the war. Back to Drazen.

There were some rumors that he had a verbal agreement with Panathinaikos at the time of his death. He woud have made basketball much more entertaining in any team in which he landed (be it Europe or the NBA). He was a blessing.

R.I.P.

[Shem]

Got to watch Petrovic play in person a couple of times when he played for the Blazers back in 1990. One of the games I attended was in February of 1990 when the Blazers played the Celtics and there are now 4 players who played in that game who are now deceased: Drazen Petrovic, Kevin Duckworth, Reggie Lewis, and Dennis Johnson.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/box ... 60POR.html

[EastSideBucksFan]

15 year old Bogut wearing Kukoc Bucks jersey at Petrovic's grave.








And one in a Petrovic Jersey