Drazen Petrovic was born on October 22, 1964, in Sibenik, Croatia.
Learning basketball at an early age from his older brother,
Aleksandar, Drazen was a natural. He began his professional career
at the age of fifteen, playing for the national team, where he
began his rise through the European circuit. Known as a skilled
shooter, it was not unusual for him to score 40, 50, even 60 points
during a single game. While playing for Yugoslavia in the Olympics,
Drazen and his team finished with the bronze medal in the 1984
Summer Olympic Games and the silver in the '88 Games. He later won
silver in the '92 Olympics while playing for Croatia. In 1986,
Drazen was drafted in the third round (60th overall) by the NBA's
Portland Trail Blazers. Deciding to play a few more years in
Europe, he did not come to the US until the beginning of the 1989
1990 season. Drazen, along with a handful of other players, were
part of the first groups of Europeans to break into the NBA, paving
the way for future stars. After struggling with playing time in
Portland, Drazen was traded to the New Jersey Nets in 1991. He
would become a premier player and was considered one of the finest
shooters in the NBA, averaging over 20 points a game in his two
full seasons with the Nets. He was both a hero in the US as well as
at home in Croatia, where his success had become a beacon of hope
for his beleaguered countrymen who were enduring war in what is now
the former Yugoslavia. In the summer of 1993, after his best season
in the NBA, Drazen traveled to Poland to help his country qualify
for the upcoming FIBA European Basketball Championship. Deciding
against flying with his team back to Croatia, he instead chose to
drive there with his girlfriend. On June 7, 1993, only a few months
before his twenty-ninth birthday, Drazen Petrovic died in a traffic
collision in Denkendorf, Germany. Thousands attended the funeral in
his hometown, and the New Jersey Nets retired his number 3. Even
though his career was cut short, his passion, determination, and
spirit continue to influence not only his home country, but
international basketball as a whole. Skyhorse Publishing, along
with our Arcade, Good Books, Sports Publishing, and Yucca imprints,
is proud to publish a broad range of biographies, autobiographies,
and memoirs. Our list includes biographies on well-known historical
figures like Benjamin Franklin, Nelson Mandela, and Alexander
Graham Bell, as well as villains from history, such as Heinrich
Himmler, John Wayne Gacy, and O. J. Simpson. We have also published
survivor stories of World War II, memoirs about overcoming
adversity, first-hand tales of adventure, and much more. While not
every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a
national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are
sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise
find a home.
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