Offensive Game
Elite pure scorer with one of the most beautiful and efficient shooting strokes of his era. Could score from anywhere on the floor at will.
Career Journey
Portland Trail Blazers
1989-1991
Drazen Petrovic was the shooting guard who forced the NBA to take European talent seriously. Long before he crossed the Atlantic he was a phenomenon at home, winning back-to-back EuroLeague titles with Cibona and once dropping 112 points in a single league game. Portland kept him mostly on the bench, but a 1991 trade to New Jersey unlocked everything: by 1992-93 he was pouring in 22.3 points a night on 51.8% shooting and 44.9% from three, earning All-NBA Third Team honors as one of the game's premier guards. What set him apart wasn't only the jumper — it was a relentless, first-in-last-out work ethic that teammates still describe in awe. He died in a June 1993 car accident at 28, his prime seemingly still ahead. The door he pried open for European players never closed again.
Offensive Game
Elite pure scorer with one of the most beautiful and efficient shooting strokes of his era. Could score from anywhere on the floor at will.
Defensive Game
Competitive defender who used his athleticism and basketball IQ to contest shots and create deflections.
All articles
Drazen Petrovic's #3 hangs in the Nets' rafters as a monument to the Mozart of Basketball — a Croatian pioneer who proved European players belonged in the NBA, then died at 28 just as he was becoming one of its finest.
Brooklyn Nets
Brooklyn Nets
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New Jersey Nets
1991-1993
Hall of Fame (2002)
Posthumously enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, recognized as one of the greatest European players in history.
1992-93 All-NBA Third Team
Led the New Jersey Nets at 22.3 points per game on 51.8% from the field and 44.9% from three.
112 points in a single game
On October 5, 1985 he scored 112 for Cibona against Olimpija Ljubljana, one of the great individual scoring feats in the sport's history.
Two Olympic silver medals
Won silver with Yugoslavia at Seoul 1988 and with newly independent Croatia at Barcelona 1992; the Nets retired his No. 3.
Intangibles
Trained in the European tradition under legendary coach Krešimir Ćosić, Petrovic's basketball IQ was world-class — a complete player who understood every dimension of the game.
Official Jerseys
101.24
Check Price on NBA Store
135.99
Check Price on NBA Store
60.00
Check Price on NBA Store60.00
Check Price on NBA Store
60.00
Check Price on NBA Store
119.25
Check Price on NBA Store
78.75
Check Price on NBA StoreBrooklyn Nets · Official
79.99
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