Drazen Petrovic died today, 21 years ago

Drazen Petrovic, the Basketball Mozart, died today, 21 years ago in a car accident.

In the summer of 1993, after his best NBA season and the Nets' first-round elimination by the Cleveland Cavaliers, Petrović traveled to Poland, where the Croatian national team was playing a qualification tournament for the 1993 Eurobasket. He was contemplating departure from the Nets, disappointed with tension between himself, and to his belief, envious teammates, as well as the fact that the Nets had not yet extended his contract. He told American reporters that the lack of recognition in the league had him also considering leaving the NBA completely and playing club basketball in Greece; there were at least two Greek clubs ready to offer Petrović three-year contracts worth US$7.5 million. It was rumored that Petrović verbally agreed on terms with Panathinaikos; these rumors gave rise to the story of PAO's owner, Pavlos Giannakopoulos, allegedly offering the Nets' star a signed contract with blank salary terms, which became a part of Petrović's legend. Petrović decided to skip the connection flight back to Zagreb and drive with his girlfriend back to Croatia.

Petrović died in a traffic accident at approximately 17:20 on June 7, 1993, four and a half months before his 29th birthday. On the rain-drenched Autobahn 9, he was a passenger in a car that was cut off by a semi truck at Denkendorf, near Ingolstadt, in the German state of Bavaria. According to the report of the Ingolstadt police, that afternoon a truck broke through the Autobahn median; the truck driver was trying to avoid a collision with a personal vehicle in his own lane and lost control of the truck, crashing through the median barrier and finally coming to a stop blocking all three lanes of traffic in the opposite direction (Munich). Seconds later, the VW Golf carrying a sleeping Petrović in the passenger seat crashed into the truck, killing him and leaving the driver, Klara Szalantzy, a model and female basketball player with whom Petrović was romantically involved, and Hilal Edebal, a female Turkish basketball player, with grave injuries.It was established that visibility on the road was very poor and that Petrović was not buckled with a seatbelt.