Dražen Petrović:

I do not remember that several different people asked me just one topic for this Tuesday. On the street, in a cafe, in the store ... How to reject the text about a man who has shifted the standards of European basketball, which made every good quality from these spaces compare with him. We have not found a replacement until today and I do not believe that we will ...

One of my extremely dear people, whose advice I highly appreciate and appreciate, said: "Some people are destined to be legends, in order to do things in their short life for which they will remember them forever in good order. Such mind-blowers do not get into the mud and Kafanski disrepute ... ".

Drazen Petrovic was destined to be a legend, but again, he is troubled as I write. It was supposed to be there, to occasionally appear in a show and said that he was worried about the state of today's basketball. How players do not train enough, so that he can still throw in everyone today.

It's been 20 years since his death and every time I see a picture of that smashed "golf" I think the same thing. How is it possible that such a player, such a special player, ended in such a way, in that disgusting "golf" on a trail, somewhere in Germany. That's how life ends the best athletes of the world ...

"No one can stop him!", My father always said, who "pushed me" to watch Drazen Petrovic.

It was all normal when you watched him play. To score 60 points, hit the seven threes in a row, free to throw away any important free throw, to break the defending player with his combination through his legs and behind. The most normal thing in the world. His Cibona was the best shooter team I had ever seen in my life. People almost did not miss, and the leader of everything was a boy with a slightly open mouth and a squeezed fist. In my house, I was constantly convinced that the day after the conquest of KEŠ parked the car in front of the hall, he pulled the ball out of the pocket and went to extra shot.

Drazen because of his Jordanian desire to destroy his rival and was not particularly favored by fans of the opposing teams. Unlike, say, Tony Kukoch, who was universally adored in all the halls of ex-YU, you are either dear or loved, or not loved. The middle could not be.

In his time, Woodpecker did not go to the NBA, or stayed there for more than a minute. At that time, it was not enough for someone to "perceive" the potential, so that the saliva "screams" for you that have been bringing glacier mobs for millions of years for more than a decade. At that time, you were lucky if your west end of the second or the start of the third round, and in Europe you won everything and got hitting 30 per game.

When someone is Rick Adelman, I am still today the first association that he did not give Dražen play. How he could not see and what he was looking at, even after all these years, it's not clear to me, nor can I accept any explanation. I remember that the father gritted his teeth while watching the finals against Pistons and saying "Is it possible that this fool does not introduce Drazen into the game ... is it possible?" He played Danny Young, which I remembered as he gained an edge over the best European shooter. He played because Adelman could not understand that he understood. If nothing, he learned after this mistake ...

Going to Netsea was like going downstairs to the dark cellar. My whole company was heavily infected with the NBA virus. We realized that the NBA was the second dimension compared to all that we watched in our league until then, but still we could not easily get a picture from the "NBA Action", where from the top ten moves of the week three were dashes by Stacey Augmon over and over Dražena.

Again, the work healed all. Not a shot? Drazen himself was silent in the hall alone until his arm was pinched. You're in contact? Additionally weights weights. The center that comes from Europe comes to the NBA and it's not that hard to find the way, but the back ...

Being the third five-league '93, will be the third best-in-charge shooter in the NBA in 1993, where you are a white man from former Yugoslavia, from Sibenik, and opponents in this position are Michael Jordan, Clyde Drexler, Mitch Richmond, Joe Dumars, Reggie Miller , John Starks, Vernon Maxwell, Byron Scott, Dale Ellis, Dan Mayerle, Mahmoud Abdul Rauf, Ron Harper, Jeff Malone, Jeff Hornacek, Hersey Hawkins, Kendall Gill and Ricky Pierce is almost impossible. (This way when you read how the backbones played in the NBA in the late 80's, in the early 90's, it's that your mind gets up). Drazen went on for more than 20 points per game in this basketball competition for two years in a row, with 50% of the game ...

He was allegedly targeted by New York after the end of the season and imagine that Pat Riley had brought one of the best world champions on that Knicks defense. Does anyone think that Dražen Petrović would shoot 2-11 from the game like Starks in the seventh game of the final? Something not sure ...

The VHS cassette I'm saving is not with a game where Drazen puts 70 points or something like that. No. I'm keeping a tape in which Dražen comments on the play-off of Boston - Indiana and thus breaks up every player (Dražen during the two minute story about Mike Sanders.) You get the impression that more and about his game than he himself) in the field and the attacks and defenses of both teams, to instantly understand: "That's why he is the best. He knows absolutely everything about basketball." The comment and after so much time sounds so good that I do not even look at the picture, but I just listen to the story ...

I found 5,000 shortfalls to the documentary "Once Brothers", but one scene was cut into my memory forever. When Dino Rađa talks about Dražen's decision not to enter the plane but to continue his car. As he talks about the black clouds around Munich underneath the airplane, and as a pilot begs travelers to tie their belts for the upcoming turbulence, Rada looks at her watch and at that moment Dražen's car is beneath them. It's the time when life is one of the best of all time ...

While Rađa tells tears, my face is lowering her cheeks. I can not stop them. About 15 people sit around me and I'm not embarrassed for a moment. The pain came to my eyes ... I did not cry when he died, but while I listened to Raghea, the story of tears did not stop. I watched the documentary several times and that statement fractured me every time. I can not defend myself ...

This is not a text about his games and trophies. That every basketball lover who holds to himself should know in a dream. This is my failure to fight with a picture of a "golf" in a truck ... Some people are destined to be legends and remember them forever in good ... That's the only explanation I have, and I know it's not good enough.