Drazen Petrovic

On this day, exactly 23 years in the traffic accident on the Frankfurt - Munich motorway, one of the greatest European basketball players of all time, Dražen Petrović, was killed.

We are writing to you by Edina Avdić about Dražena Petrović, who wrote three years ago, on the 20th anniversary of the death of this great basketball player: I do not remember that more people came up with just one topic for this Tuesday. On a street, in a cafe, in a store ... How do I reject a text about a man who has moved to European basketball standards, who has done so to compare each of the quality bans from this area. Replacement until today did not find and I do not believe we will ...

One of my most beloved ones, whose advice I fully appreciate and respect, told me: "Some people are destined to be legends, to do things they will remember forever in their short lives, such soulmates do not get to mud and kafane maladies ... ".

Drazen Petrovic was destined to be a legend, and yet, I'm sorry to write it. He needed to go there occasionally to appear in a show and say he was worried about the state of today's basketball. As the players do not train enough, he still can put 20 in everyone.

It's been 20 years since his death and every time I see the picture of that frozen "golf" I think the same thing. How could such a player, such a special player, end up in such a way, in that disgusting "golf" on the eerie road, somewhere in Germany. Life does not end up being the best athletes in the world ...

"No one can stop it!" My father always spoke, who even "pulled me" to look at Drazen Petrovic.

Everything was normal when you watched him play. To score 60 points, to hit seven three in a row, without any mistakes, strike each essential free throw, to deflect the defensive player with his combination through the legs and behind his back. The most normal thing in the world. His Cibona was the best team I've ever seen. People almost did not miss, and the head of everything was a boy with a slightly open mouth and a clenched fist. In my house he always recalled that the day after the conquest of KEŠ he parked a car in front of the hall, took the ball out of his hand and went out to further spin.

Dražen because of his Jordanian desire to destroy the rival and was not particularly favored among opponents' supporters. Unlike, say, Tony Kukoč, who was universally adored in all the ex-YU halls, Drazen was either worshiping or not. The middle could not be.

During his time the woods did not go to the NBA or stayed there for longer than a minute. At that time, it was not enough for someone to "perceive" the potential, so that you would have the "scream" of the saliva that for more than a decade brought types of glacial mobiles to take millions. Then you were lucky if you were west to the other or the start of the third round and in Europe you won all the rage and pushed 30 by the game.

When someone reminds me of Ricka Adelmana, it is still the first association that I did not give Dražena to play. Since he could not see what he was looking at, and after all these years, it is not clear, nor can I accept any explanation. I remember how her father rolled his teeth as we watched the finale against Piston and said "It's possible this fool will not introduce Drazen to the game ... Is it possible?" Danny Young was playing I remembered for gaining the advantage of the best European striker. He was playing because Adelman could not understand, to understand. If anything, he learned after that mistake ...

Going to Netse was like stepping down the stairs into the dark basement. My whole society was heavily infected with the NBA virus. We realized that the NBA was another dimension compared to everything we watched in our league so far, but still we could not easily figure out a picture of "NBA action", where out of the top 10 moves of the week, three were staging Stacey Augmona over and over Drazen.

Again, the work cured everything. Does not a shot go? Drazen walked alone in the hall while his arm was running. Are you in touch? In addition, stretch the tension. The center that comes from Europe comes to the NBA and is not so difficult to find a way, but bless ...

To be third in the league of '93, to be the third best defender in the NBA in 1993, where you are white from the former Juge, from Sibenik, and your opponents are Michael Jordan, Clyde Drexler, Mitch Richmond, Joe Dumars, Reggie Miller John Starks, Vernon Maxwell, Byron Scott, Dale Ellis, Dan Majerle, Mahmoud Abdul Rauf, Ron Harper, Jeff Malone, Jeff Hornacek, Hersey Hawkins, Kendall Gill and Ricky Pierce are almost impossible. (This is how you read what the beats played in the NBA at the end of the '80s, in the early 1990s, that's for sure.) Dražen has spent more than 20 points per game in this basketball machine competition for two years, with 50% of the play-off ...It was allegedly the New Yorker at the end of the season and imagine that Pat Riley brought him one of the best shots of the world on that Knick's defense. Does anyone think Dražen Petrovic shuts 2-11 out of the game as Starks in the seventh game of the finals? Something I'm not sure ...

The VHS tape I watch is not with the match where Drazen puts 70 points or something. Not. I'm watching a tape in which Drazen commented on the Boston-Indiana match-break and breaks down every player (Dražen during a two-minute story about Mike Sanders, you're impressed that he knows more about his game than he is) on the ground and the attacks and defense of both teams, to understand at the moment: "That's why he is the best. He knows everything about basketball." The comment after a while sounds so good that I do not see the picture at all but just listen to the story ...

I found 5,000 mans for the documentary "Once Brothers", but one scene was engraved in memory forever. When Dino Rađa tells Dražen's decision not to enter the plane, but to continue with the car. As he talks about the black clouds flying around the plane below the plane, and as a pilot asks the passengers to tie the belts due to the upcoming turbulence, Rađa looks at the clock and at that moment Dražen's car is below them. That is the time when life is one of the best of all times ...

While Raja tells my tears, my face is down my cheeks. I can not stop them. About 15 people are sitting around me and at no time is not unpleasant. Pain comes to my eyes ... I did not cry when he was killed, but as I listened to Raoden's story, tears did not stop. I've been watching the documentary several times, and that statement comes out every time. I can not defend myself ...

This is not a text about his matches and trophies. Every basketball lover he would have to know in his dream would have it. This is my powerlessness to choose a picture of "golf" hit in a truck ... Some people are destined to be legends and to remember them for good for good ... It's the only explanation I have, and I know it's not good enough.