But it also was because there had never been a player like him, a foreign star who came of age outside the traditional feeder system of American college basketball. This is partly because “Mozart,” in this case, possessed a lackluster reputation on the defensive end. But when he arrived in the NBA, nobody was certain if it would work. In 1988, he led the former Yugoslavia to a silver medal at the Seoul Olympics. In 1985, he scored 112 points in one game for Cibona Zagreb. Petrovic was probably the best offensive basketball player in the world outside the NBA, a 6-foot-5 guard with deep range, feathery touch and a proto-Eurostep - “The Lawrence Welk move,” as legendary scout Marty Blake put it - but he also was a character, a fiery Croatian virtuoso who hoisted 3-pointers, flipped behind-the-back passes and drove opponents crazy. One Italian newspaper dubbed him “The Holy Terror from Zagreb.” Another said he was “the white Isiah Thomas.” At times, he was “Petro.” In other moments he was “Draz.” When he starred for Real Madrid, one of the powers of European basketball, he was “Perro Caliente,” the hot dog.Īnd then, there was the special moniker from Arvydas Sabonis, the great Lithuanian center and a chief rival on the Soviet national team: He once called him “ C lown.”
In Europe, fans called him “Mozart,” a tribute to his artistry and flair. When Drazen Petrovic joined the Portland Trail Blazers in 1989, he already had a hundred nicknames. I have to copy and paste, The Athletic is subscription only.
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