Concert in Croatia will honor basketball legend Drazen Petrovic

(Photo: Croatia Week)

A concert by the philharmonic orchestra to mark the occasion will be held this Saturday at Zagreb’s Vatroslav Lisinski hall in honour of the great man. Under the baton of Leopold Hager, the orchestra will play amongst other pieces, Mozart, fitting for a man who was nicknamed ‘Basketball’s Mozart’.

Born in Šibenik on 22 October 50 years ago, Petrović was just 28 years of age when he was killed in a car accident in Germany after returning from playing for Croatia in Poland on 7 June 1993. Voted the Best European Basketballer in History, Petrović enjoyed an illustrious career with the New Jersey Nets, averaging 20.6 points in 36.9 minutes on the floor, and nearly leading all NBA guards in field goal percentage (51%). He did not miss a single game. Dražen also won Olympic basketball medals, as well as a gold and a bronze at the FIBA World and European Championships.