NBA Draft: Best international players ever taken

5. Drazen Petrovic, SG, Yugoslavia

1986 Draft: No. 60 pick by the Portland Trail Blazers

Just by the raw numbers, he’s not the most impactful European player ever. But Drazen Petrovic is another case of what might have been. Originally drafted 60th in 1986 by the Trail Blazers, Petrovic was part of the first wave of international players to come over in 1989. He immediately helped make an impact as a rotation guard for the Blazers’ 1990 Finals team, and after being traded to the Nets in 1990-91, exploded as a scorer next to young studs Kenny Anderson and Derrick Coleman. At 28 years old, Petrovic averaged 22.3 points, 2.7 rebounds, and 3.5 assists per game for a Nets team that lost a fierce first round matchup with the Cleveland Cavaliers. Then, on June 7th, 1993, he was gone, dying in a car accident in Germany.

Had Petrovic’s career been allowed to be carried out in full, there’s a good chance he could have had a major impact on the league. He was one of the first early players to combine skilled long-range shooting with elite finishing, hitting 43.7 percent from three for his career and finishing eighth in the league in true shooting percentage at 60.5 percent in 1992-93, a rare feat for a guard who took over 150 threes in a season at the time. Petrovic having a sustained peak at the level he reached in his two full seasons with the Nets would have allowed him to challenge Reggie Miller as the 1990’s best shooter, and he certainly would have helped in further establishing the three-pointer as a weapon for an NBA offense. Given his impressive international resume and his performance over four NBA seasons, Petrovic likely would have become an even bigger legend if his career had fully played out.

Next: 4. Manu Ginobili