1986: Šibenek Symphony (The Compositions of Dražen Petrović)

Without Mozart, Croatia’s story isn’t complete. The chapters of Dino, Mario, or Toni would be thoroughly altered. What symphony is complete without its composer? The story of basketball along the Republika Hrvatska is rote with twists, turns, triumphs, and tragedy, and the legend of Dražen Petrović, the father of Croatian hoops, unfortunately has all four in a very short period of time. To understand it all, Šibenek must be the beginning, but it’s far from the end.  

Before the dive into Dražen’s life, it would be journalistic malpractice to not address the political workings of Balkan hoops. While Dražen can be regarded as the most influential player from the region, he is cemented as the father of Croatian hoops. His legacy lives on in Serbia, in Slovenia, and Bosnia, as a Croatian, just not in the same context as that label holds in his home country. 

ESPN’s Once Brothers, part of the 30 for 30 film series, can describe the ethnic differences and political divisions of the area much better than I am qualified to do so. However, it does center around Vlade Divac and the deterioration of the friendship between him and Petrović. I will offer to recommend readers to take segments of the film with a grain of salt, because some of Dražen’s friends have disputed parts of it. This is a piece on Croatian basketball and Mozart, but when it comes to regional tensions, I can neither be completely quiet nor can I speak with much certainty about any of it. As an American born after the wars in the Balkan states, I can only plead for the reader to recognize the weight of being from each country. 

Dražen Petrović was born October 22, 1964, in the coastal nook of Šibenek, Croatia, then Yugoslavia, in between Zadar and Split on the inlets of the Adriatic. Starting as a teenager, he played locally at Šibenka, the club team of Šibenek, with a roster spot on a team in the highest flight of Yugoslavian basketball at the age of 15. From there, it was all upwards for the young guard. 

After two seasons of minimal playing time for Šibenka, Dražen broke out at age 17, bumping his points mark above 15 PPG and leading the team to the quarterfinals of the Yugoslav First Basketball League. For the rest of his career in the Yugoslavian league, he wouldn’t average less than 24.5 PPG in a season. That mark would come in the next year, his last season with his hometown team. 

In the 1982-83 season for Šibenka, Mozart took the club to the next step, winning the regular season ahead of Partizan and Bosna and losing just six games in the 22-game regular season. In three straight best-of-three series, Šibenka edged out opponents 2-1 in each round, defeating Bosna in a tightly-contested championship game, one seemingly settled by a pair of Petrović free throws but called back the next day by the league and rescheduled for later. But that nullified victory would be the last time Dražen would take the court for Šibenka in the Yugoslav playoffs, with the team boycotting the decision, handing the official trophy to Bosna.

The 6’5 guard would spend one year in the Yugoslav People’s Army, and return to the court for powerhouse Cibona Zagreb, who had won the league the previous year, with the help of Aleksandar, Dražen’s older brother who had been playing for in Zagreb for years. If the continent did not know of Mozart prior to this season, his compositions on the court were impossible to miss by this point. Being away from the game for a year only seemed to strengthen the young star, who raised his PPG average by 8+ points for the third straight season, this time up to 32.5 PPG for Cibona in the Yugoslavian league. 

1984 also brought about Dražen’s first experiences with international basketball. In the Olympics in Los Angeles, Petrović and his brother were key members of the bronze medal-winning Yugoslavian team that went 5-0 with a +91 scoring margin in the group stages. Rajko Žižić and Dražen Dalipagić were also members of the ‘84 squad. 

Cibona would end up 19-3 in the 1984-85 season, losing to just Zadar, Partizan, and Dražen’s former team, Šibenka. Once the Yugoslavian playoffs came around, it was all Cibona. In the quarters, they dismantled Borac Čačak by 20+ points in back-to-back games. Matched up against Partizan in the next round, the scores were closer but ultimately the same end result, with Cibona sweeping the series 2-0 after a pair of victories. In the finals against Belgrade’s Crvena zvezda, Petrović and Cibona won the first game after sweeping the regular season series. But the 2-seed won game two, setting up a rubber match for the championship.

Cibona scored 119 points, their second-highest output of the season in a 13-point victory in the final. But Dražen’s season wasn’t done. It was time for the FIBA European Champions Cup (now known as the EuroLeague.) Gone were the days of the Korać Cup (named after former Yugoslavian ballplayer Radivoj Korać, who died young in a car crash) for now. Petrović, by virtue of Cibona’s success, (and his own) was now going up against the best that Europe had to offer. 

If there was any question about if Petrović could sling it with the best, it was answered by his performances against the most celebrated clubs on the continent. Cibona took down CSKA Sofia in the first round, NMKY Helsinki in the second, and went 7-3 in the semi-final group stage to advance to the final against Real Madrid, arguably the most decorated basketball club in all of Europe. Dražen led both teams with 36 points in an 87-78 victory in Piraeus, Greece, bringing Cibona to their greatest heights as a club in his first season in Zagreb. 

Pistol Pete Maravich averaged 44.2 PPG over his collegiate career almost two decades prior to Petrović’s second season with Cibona. What Maravich did to college kids, Dražen did to the best teams in the Yugoslavian league. In what would turn out to be Petrović’s best scoring season in his career, he ended up averaging 41.4 PPG over a 30-game season. Included in that average was the highest single-game point total in Yugoslavian professional basketball history, a 112-point outing against Ljubljana, out-scoring the opponent by 35 points just by himself. 

While Cibona couldn’t repeat as Yugoslavian league champions, (they were beaten by KK Zadar) they did repeat as winners of the European Champions Cup, this time defeating Žalgiris of Kaunas, Lithuania, led by Arvydas Sabonis, father of current NBAer Domantas. (Both Petrović and the elder Sabonis would go on to play for the Trail Blazers, but not concurrently.) The 94-82 victory in Budapest is still the most recent EuroLeague title for Cibona. 

In the offseason, Petrović was drafted by the Portland Trail Blazers in the third round of the NBA draft. However, he chose to remain playing professionally in Europe due to restrictions on Yugoslavian athletes leaving the country to join other leagues before a certain age. Over the next two seasons at Cibona, Dražen would continue to dominate the Yugoslavian league, but the club did not win another league title. Cibona would, however, win the FIBA European Cup Winners’ Cup (one step below the EuroLeague competition) in 1986-87 and the Korać Cup (the same competition that Šibenka had placed 2nd in while Petrović was starring for them) in the 1987-88 season.

After the ‘87-88 season, Petrović knew he would be competing elsewhere, likely in Spain, where the best basketball, or baloncesto, was being played. Which team he would be playing for, however, was yet to be decided. Dražen was days away from taking his talents from the Balkans to the Balearic. Catalonia was calling, and Barcelona, with the likes of Cándido Sibilio and Nacho Solozábal, was beginning to develop a reputation for being one of the best clubs in Spain. 

Eventually, however, it was Real Madrid that earned the services of the 23-year-old Yugoslavian. Before he could step on the court in Spain’s capital, Dražen was back in the Olympics with Yugoslavia, this time in Seoul with future NBA players Žarko Paspalj (San Antonio Spurs), Vlade Divac (Lakers, Hornets, and Kings), Stojko Vranković (Celtics and Clippers), Toni Kukoč (Bulls, Sixers, Hawks, and Bucks), and Dino Rađa (Celtics). Arguably one of the top basketball coaches of all time, Željko Obradović, was also on the roster while still in his playing days as an undersized point guard. 

Despite defeating the Soviet Union in group play and finishing with the second-highest point margin, the revamped Yugoslavian team ended up losing to the Soviets in a rematch in the gold medal matchup after defeating Canada and Australia to reach the final. It would be the last time Dražen would represent Yugoslavia in the Olympics, with the Croatian War of Independence scarring the region beginning in 1991. 

In Madrid, Petrović stayed for just one season but held a lasting impact. In the Copa del Rey final against rivals Barcelona, Dražen led Real to an 85-81 victory to take home national bragging rights, although Barcelona bit back in the Liga ACB Finals. Still in the same year, Madrid won the FIBA European Cup Winners’ Cup, the second win of the cup in three years for a Petrović-led team. It was in the title game where Petrović had one of his best performances of his career, a 62-point outburst against Snaidero Caserta in a 117-113 victory. 

After one year in Spain, Petrović was able to make the jump to the States, becoming the first Croatian in the NBA. From the start, Portland simply was not the best fit for him. Sitting behind Clyde the Glide Drexler and a couple of other guards, Petrović was forced to come off the bench and averaged just over 12 minutes per game. Despite the lack of opportunity afforded by head coach Rick Adelman, Dražen was highly efficient when on the court, shooting 45.9% from deep as a rookie and still managing 7.6 PPG. 

But the next season, again, Adelman continued to misuse Petrović, sticking him further down in the rotation and dropping his playing time to single-digits. This was the same player that cut down the best defenses that Europe had to offer, with an ease not seen before. It reached a head halfway through the season, when Dražen was traded to the New Jersey Nets. From there, Petrović started to catch fire once given an opportunity to shine.

It wasn’t that Petrović wasn’t ready for the NBA. It was never that. The NBA just wasn’t ready for Dražen. A pure shooter, that was apparent from his earliest days back when he donned jerseys for Šibenka. Mozart could score, and score at will, even in the best basketball league on the planet. 

Watching highlights, slowing down his shooting motion; it’s so repeatable. It’s as if it was manufactured in a lab to synthesize the world’s smoothest jump shot. Blink, and you’ll miss it. Forget Curry. The quickest release in league history is still the kid from Šibenek. It’s as if Dražen knew he was going to shoot the ball before he even got it. Passes behind the back, looking up, looking down, making the esteemed Hakeem Olajuwon look like a G-Leaguer on defense. No matter the venue, whether it be Yugoslavia, Croatia, Spain, the U.S.A., Petrović simply did what he was best at: put the ball at the bottom of the net. 

Dražen didn’t start a game in that first half-season with New Jersey, but he almost tripled his playing time compared to what he had received in Portland, and averaged 12.6 PPG over 43 games played. In his first full season in New Jersey, Mozart took off. Playing in all 82 regular season games, he didn’t miss a start, shooting 44.4% from deep, 80.8% from the line, and scoring 20.6 PPG. Though the Nets lost in the first round of the playoffs to Brad Daugherty and the Cleveland Cavs, Petrović shined in the series, putting up an average of 24.3 PPG over 40.0 MPG in four games. 

Just a few months later, Dražen was back on the international scene, representing Croatia for the first time in the Olympics while conflict raged on at home. Serbs and Croatians were pitted against each other, and the fighting would not cease between the two areas for another several years after the Olympics. The 1992 games, hosted in a familiar place for Dražen, Barcelona, is more known today as the year of the iconic “Dream Team” from the United States. But it’s often forgotten who that team played in the gold medal match.

It was Petrović’s Croatian squad, with Dino Rađa and Toni Kukoč. Going up against Jordan, Pippen, Bird, and former teammate Drexler, Dražen showed no fear. While beating the team would prove near impossible, Petrović scored a game-high 24 points against arguably the best basketball team ever assembled. 

The next season, somehow, Dražen again improved, bumping up his scoring average to 22.3 PPG and hitting 44.9% of his threes. However, the Nets were again bounced in the first round of the playoffs by Cleveland, this time in five games. Petrović would not get a chance on an NBA court again.

On June 7, 1993, Dražen Petrović was asleep in the passenger seat of a car on the Autobahn in Germany being driven by his girlfriend. A truck had been stopped in the road following a crash, and the Volkswagen carrying Petrović, his girlfriend, and another women’s basketball player, Hilal Edebal, hit the truck at over 100 MPH, around 180 KPH. Edebal and Petrović’s girlfriend, Klara Szalantzy, survived. Petrović, who was not wearing a seatbelt, was ejected from the vehicle and died on impact. He was 28 years old.

The news sent shockwaves through Croatia. That was their chosen son, the one that not only made the NBA, but was starting on his rise to stardom there. How could this happen? Simply in the hands of a tragic accident. Tributes poured in from around the globe, from Croatians and Serbians, Bulls and Celtics. The league loved him. Which one? All of them. He was Europe’s child, the prodigal son. Gone, just like that. 

There is no end, in one very specific sense. Dražen’s fingerprints can be found on every three-pointer launched by Bojan Bogdanović. When healthy, Dario Šarić’s game is musical, and it’s composed by Mozart. Not the Austrian prodigy, but the Croatian sharpshooter. This part of Dražen’s legacy will live on as long as there is basketball in Croatia. But these extensions of the man who blazed the trail for thousands are just that. Extensions. When Petrović’s life ended on the Autobahn, that was it.

There’s no answers to questions of “what could have been?,” or “what happens if he doesn’t get in the car that day?,” because there is a finality in death. There is but one Dražen, and there will only ever be one. It’s no use speculating what his PPG would have been the next season or where he would have ended up on the NBA’s all-time list, because there will never be an answer. The moment we lose the ability to connect with Dražen, we are presented with two options: look at the past or look into the future. It is possible for us to do both. But we cannot live in that past, and he cannot live in this future. 

Conjecture simply serves to lessen the impacts that were made while Dražen still lived. Rather than “could Croatia have won the gold at the 1996 Olympics?,” the memories of Petrović’s 24 against the Dream Team in the 1992 final of the Barcelona Olympics should be first on the brain. Or, again, the 112 points scored against Ljubljana. The Yugoslav Cups, the Copa del Rey, the two EuroLeague championships, several Euroscars (given out to the best male European basketball player every year), or his various other national team accomplishments. It’s entirely possible to remember our fallen heroes for the accomplishments recorded alive instead of what the rest of their careers could have held for them. 

There is a distinction, however, between imagining what could have been and realizing what has happened as a direct result of what Dražen did while he was alive. It’s no coincidence that his first NBA team was the Trail Blazers. What Mozart was able to do, inspire a whole generation of Croatian basketball players, needs to be properly documented. 

The current generation of Croatian hoopers, led by Bogdanović, Šarić (shoutout to my friend Leviya of course), Šamanić, Zubac, Hezonja, Rudež, Markota, Bender, and Žižić, grew up hearing about Dražen from coaches, family, and friends. Five of those nine (Bogdanović, Šarić, Rudež, Markota, and Zubac) played for Cibona. Šarić, himself from Šibenek, was born nine months and one day after Petrović’s death. His father, Predrag, was teammates with Dražen at Šibenka. Every kid from Croatia that grows up with a basketball in their hand wants to be Dražen. 

Sure, we know that’s impossible. We know that there’ll only ever be one Dražen, Mozart himself. But we have to ask ourselves: do we still listen to Mozart today? Of course. How? Through his compositions. So listen close to the sound of the ball reverberating off the hardwood in Split, Zagreb, Dubrovnik, Zadar, and of course, Šibenek. It may not be Dražen, but he composed it. Dražen Petrović was struck down far too early, and that will always bring a tear to the eye. But as long as there is basketball in Croatia, and as long as the white #3 jersey hangs in the rafters across the ocean back in America, his music will be played, and Mozart will continue to reach the ears long after we are gone.