20 NBA Hall-of-Fame careers that were cut short by injury

NBA Hall-of-Fame career cut short: Drazen Petrovic

If Arvydas Sabonis was Europe’s brightest star in the early 1990s, Drazen Petrovic was the player who handed the torch off to him. The Yugoslavian and Croatian shooting guard was an offensive marvel, winning at every level and racking up scoring titles and MVP awards in whatever league he played in. There was no brighter star on the international basketball stage.

Petrovic came to the NBA in 1989 but joined a Portland Trail Blazers team that was already loaded with talented guards and struggled to make an impact in very limited minutes. Midway through his second season, at his request, he was traded to the New Jersey Nets, and there proved that his scoring could absolutely translate to the NBA.

In his third season in the league and first full year with the Nets, Petrov exploded to average 20.6 points per game, hitting 44.4 percent of his 3-pointers (second-best in the league) and leading a struggling Nets team into the playoffs. The next season he continued to improve, shooting better from every area and averaging 22.3 points per game. After the season he was named to an All-NBA Team and his star was pointing solidly up.

Then tragedy struck. In the summer of 1993, Petrovic was in Poland playing for the Croatian national team and decided to drive back home to Croatia rather than fly with the team. The driver of a semi-truck lost control in the rain and swerved into oncoming traffic, and Petrovic was thrown from his vehicle when they collided and he died on impact. The greatest Croatian basketball player of all time never got to continue his career, and many friends, family and admirers mourn his loss to this day.