Dražen Petrović spent the last four seasons of his career in the NBA, playing for the Portland Trail Blazers and New Jersey Nets before his tragic accident. He earned All-NBA Third Team honors in his final season and made a significant impact on the league despite playing only four seasons. A fierce competitor and elite scorer, he averaged 22.3 points per game in his last season with the Nets. Former NBA champion Vernon Maxwell, who won two titles with the Houston Rockets, knew just how good Petrović was—he felt it firsthand. “He gave me nightmares,” Maxwell said on the All the Smoke podcast with Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson. It wasn’t about Petrović’s physical attributes, though Maxwell remembers him being bigger. “He was bigger than me. I’m 6’4. I mean, I’ve never seen anything like it before… I’d rather guard Black Jesus, Michael Jordan, than guard him. That’s how bad it was for me. He used to give me buckets. I was so frustrated—I couldn’t stop him,” Maxwell concluded.
Source: EuroHoops.net
Source: EuroHoops.net
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Donovan Mitchell is 1 of 2 players to average 30+ points against the Celtics in the regular season. The other is Michael Jordan 🤯
📺 Cavs at Celtics | 7:30 PM ET | ESPN pic.x.com/IwQ7Syhw0G – 4:36 PM
Donovan Mitchell is 1 of 2 players to average 30+ points against the Celtics in the regular season. The other is Michael Jordan 🤯
📺 Cavs at Celtics | 7:30 PM ET | ESPN pic.x.com/IwQ7Syhw0G – 4:36 PM
More on this storyline
Carter’s No. 15 will be the seventh retired jersey to hang inside Barclays Center, along with the late Drazen Petrovic (3), Jason Kidd (5), John Williamson (23), Bill Melchionni (25), Julius Erving (32) and Buck Williams (52). “I remember obviously watching him play from the Toronto days, the Jersey days, then I was already in the NBA at that point after that,” coach Jordi Fernandez said. “You don’t realize that he played for 22 years. He went from being like a top guy to having a different role and accepting that role and that means a lot….Honoring his career and putting his jersey up there, I think, is the least we can do and we’re excited to honor his legacy.” -via New York Post / January 25, 2025
Yet to those who didn’t live through the Dončić experience — the front office executives, coaches and scouts who would love nothing more than to get their hands on a player of his ilk — all these justifications for the trade simply don’t compute. This is the NBA, where ego management has always been part of the equation and choir boys are hard to come by. Talent isn’t the end-all-be-all, but Dončić’s type — the transcendent kind — is so rare that it should be given every opportunity to be maximized. That’s how it was for the likes of Allen Iverson, Magic Johnson, Shaquille O’Neal, Bill Walton and Larry Bird — all elite players who had their warts. That list is undeniably long, with very few able to meet the sort of standard set by Bryant or his idol, Michael Jordan (who had off-court issues of his own). As one league source put it while discussing these sorts of players, “You manage.” -via New York Times / February 26, 2025
Main Rumors, Drazen Petrovic, New Jersey, New Jersey Nets, Vernon Maxwell, Matt Barnes, Michael Jordan, Stephen Jackson, Brooklyn Nets, Houston Rockets, Portland Trail Blazers
