Jordan's Toughest Opponent Died At 28. Most Americans Never Knew His Name

In 2001, Goran Ivanisevic won Wimbledon. When it was over, he reached into his bag and pulled out a basketball jersey. Number 3. New Jersey Nets. He put it on and walked into a crowd of 100,000 people in Split, Croatia, wearing it. The jersey belonged to Drazen Petrovic. They had been friends. Ivanisevic wanted him there. Petrovic had been dead for eight years. He never got to see what he started. Drazen Petrovic averaged 22.3 points per game in his final NBA season. He shot 51.8% from the field and 44.9% from three — a three-point percentage that ranks fourth in NBA history. All time. Not among his era. All time. The Eastern Conference All-Star selectors said the guard spots were too crowded. He wasn't selected. He was going to be selected the following year. The following year, he was dead. On June 7th, 1993, on the Autobahn 9 near Ingolstadt, Germany, a truck broke through the median and blocked all three lanes of traffic. Petrovic was asleep in the passenger seat of a car traveling at 180 kilometers per hour. He wasn't wearing a seatbelt. The car hit the truck. He was ejected on impact. The gold watch on his left wrist stopped at 5:20 PM. Two days later, the NBA Finals began. The league held a moment of silence before Game 1. Then the game started. The sport moved on. It always does. This documentary covers the full arc: from Sibenik, Croatia, to two EuroLeague championships, to Portland's bench where the reigning European Player of the Year played 12 minutes per night in garbage time, to New Jersey where they finally let him play, to the 1992 Olympics where Croatia led the Dream Team 25-23, to the highway in Bavaria. And to what came after — the thirty years of European players who walked through a door he built and never got to use himself. Magic Johnson said it in 2002 at the Hall of Fame induction: ""He opened the door for all the other European guys that came behind him."" Dirk Nowitzki. Tony Parker. Manu Ginobili. Luka Doncic. Giannis Antetokounmpo. All of them walked through his door. None of them knew him. CHAPTERS 00:00 — Wimbledon, 2001: A Jersey In The Crowd 05:20 — Sibenik, Croatia: The Mozart Of Basketball 13:00 — Cibona, EuroLeague: 112 Points In One Game 21:30 — Real Madrid: Buying His Way To The NBA 28:10 — Portland: 12 Minutes Per Night In Garbage Time 36:40 — New Jersey: They Finally Let Him Play 44:20 — Barcelona 1992: Croatia Led The Dream Team 25-23 50:00 — June 7th, 1993: Autobahn 9 55:30 — The Watch Stopped At 5:20 58:40 — The Door He Built And Never Used SOURCES & FURTHER READING Basketball Reference — career statistics, Portland Trail Blazers & New Jersey Nets NBA three-point field goal percentage records — all time Todd Spehr, ""Drazen: The Remarkable Life And Legacy Of The Mozart Of Basketball"" — Sports Illustrated excerpt, March 2015 Ingolstadt Police accident report — June 7, 1993 Tarrant County Medical Examiner — autopsy report Washington Post: ""Nets' Petrovic Dies In Auto Accident"" — June 8, 1993 Magic Johnson — Hall of Fame induction speech, 2002 Michael Jordan — published quotes on competing against Petrovic Chuck Daly — Newark Star-Ledger interview Clyde Drexler — ESPN retrospective Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame — Petrovic induction, 2002 NBA.com Legends Profile: Drazen Petrovic 1992 Barcelona Olympics box score — USA vs Croatia, gold medal game NetsDaily: ""On The Anniversary Of His Death, A Look At His Legacy"" — June 2020 This channel covers the untold stories of basketball — the careers history got wrong, the players the era wasn't ready for, and the systems that built legends and failed them. New documentary every week. #DrazenPetrovic #NBA #NewJerseyNets #BasketballHistory #NBADocumentary #EuropeanBasketball #CroatiaBasketball #BasketballDocumentary #ForgottenLegends #NBAHistory