On June 7th, 1993, the 28 year old shooting guard Dražen Petrović of the New Jersey Nets passed away in a car accident on the Autobahn 9 at 5:20 p.m. On the rain soaked highway that has no speed limit, Petrović was the passenger of a car that was cut off by a tractor trailer truck.
Petrović was a highly decorated player in Europe and for the New Jersey Nets. His number three is retired by the Nets and his number ten is retired by Cibona. In his NBA career he averaged 15.4 points per game, 2.4 assists per game, and 2.3 rebounds per game.
For his home nation of Yugoslavia, he won bronze in the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles and silver in the 1988 Olympics in Seoul. He was two times Mr. Europa in 1986 and in 1993 along with being named All NBA third team in 1993.
Unfortunately Petrović only played five NBA seasons with the Trailblazers and Nets from 1989-1993. Prior to his death, Petrović contemplated leaving the Nets because they did not renew his contract and made it very known to reporters that he was disgruntled with the whole scenario. Along with his lack of recognition in the NBA, he weighed his options on playing back overseas in Greece.
His death is an extremely unfortunate one and was a loss to the game of basketball, especially international hoops after playing many years in Yugoslavia and Spain. R.I.P number three.