Portland Trades Away Cutting-Edge Drazen Petrović, One of Many Cursed Moves to Damage an NBA Franchise

Taking Sam Bowie over Michael Jordan and Greg Oden over Kevin Durant are most typically blamed, but shipping off the sharp-shooting Croatian was a major blunder.

(All cards: David Scott’s personal collection)

The baby-faced Croatian looked lonely warming up but a Franz bread basketball card gave clues to his true persona, seen through a charismatic smile.

That 1990 autumn evening at Memorial Coliseum, guard Drazen Petrović was going through the motions while lofting in soft lay-ups, in contrast to meteoric newcomer Billy Ray Bates’ sneak-preview dunk exhibitions a decade before. Who knew Petrović once scored more than a 100 points in a pro game?

In the know was an 18-year-old Serbian named Aleksandra, a sophomore at the University of Oregon who had grown up in Belgrade. She had come up from Eugene that evening to see him play and was acquainted with his skill-set and success in Europe, most recently at Real Madrid in 1988.

Five steps from Trail Blazer radio commentator Bill Schonely, Aleksandra called out to the Balkan prodigy:

“Drazen.”

The way she pronounced his name sounded different, as if it had an extra vowel at the end.

It worked. Petrović froze his trademark move, a lurching cross-over dribble that hugged the hardwood, unlike ’76er Allen Iverson’s high-looping pendulum that would have been called a carry in other continents.

The Croat peered her way from cross court, nodded and faintly smiled before getting right back into team rhythm. Portland meant business. It had several veteran stars, had lost in five games to the Detroit Pistons in the NBA finals five months earlier, and would win the most regular-season games (63) of any team that 1990-1991 season, Petrovic’s second year as a Blazer. As during his rookie year, he would mostly sit.

But Aleksandra had seen the hyper confident side to him in Belgrade, when his Zagreb club Cibona came to town to play Red Star.

“You know what he once did?” she said inside UO’s Carson cafeteria when the topic turned to basketball. “He ran down the court and did helicopters, like with with his arms flying, after scoring a ton of points.”

Petrović came over from Real Madrid, as did Luka Doncic nearly three decades later.

At UO, graduate student David Solana, from Madrid, liked to mimic Petrović during pick-up basketball games at Esslinger gymnasium, copying the distinct footwork that set up Petrović for drives and pull-up jumpers released nearly as quickly as Stephen Curry’s.

Not that anybody at UO really cared about Petrović, excluding the few Europeans on campus who appreciated hoops, like Aleksandra and Solana. There were more important things to worry about, primarily whether the addition of Danny Ainge would be enough to push Clyde Drexler and company to the Trail Blazers’ second title. Named first team all-state in football, basketball and baseball at North Eugene High School, Ainge is possibly the state of Oregon’s best ever prep athlete.

Clyde Drexler led Portland to the 1990 and 1992 NBA finals, won by Detroit and Chicago, respectively. Petrović was traded to the New Jersey Nets on January 23, 1991. Danny Ainge left Portland after the 1991-1992 season.

Forty cents says it all: Solana and I helped host Los Angeles Clipper Ken Norman, right, at a summer 1990 basketball camp in Madrid, Spain. The following season, Norman shook hands with me at a Trail Blazer game and asked about Solana: “Where’s your home boy?”

Petrović was used sparingly by Portland but averaged 22.3 points per game with the 1992-1993 New Jersey Nets, making All-NBA Third Team. He died in a car crash in Germany on June 7, 1993.

At Carson cafeteria in spring 1990, Solana would occasionally duck into the adjoining cable TV lounge, where undergraduates were sprawled out for an hour or two of post-dinner Blazer basketball. An ex-sports magazine journalist who had done solo in-person interviews in Los Angeles with Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Solana had a good sense of humor and was not afraid to speak up on basketball, with his Castilian accent adding bite value.

On its way to the NBA finals, Portland was winning big that evening, and in came Petrović, draining two jumpers and a drive in garbage time. After an ironic snicker, Solana made a comment about Portland coach Rick Adelman and Petrović’s diverse game, drawing a reaction from a short undergraduate who likewise had strong opinions and occasionally played ball at Esslinger and the outdoor courts beside Carson dormitory.

“Petrović is nothing but a white token,” feistily said the freshman.

Watch out.

The 10 other students lounging about knew to keep quiet.

“But what the hell are you talking about?” Solana piped back, hands behind his head.

For a minute, the pair went back and forth until attitude came Solana’s way.

“Say, where you from?”

Taking only part of the bait, Solana calmly said: “Lichtenstein.”

It hadn’t been a pleasant debate to witness, had made Solana bitter afterward, and was a sign European players had yet to be accepted in the NBA. On occasion his rookie season, Petrović flashed swag through a multi-faceted inside-outside style that shattered the mold of the marginal white NBA guard from the US suburbs who could hit uncontested jump shots yet struggled with body control on fast breaks, polar opposite to a guy like Seattle’s Gus Williams.

Luka Doncic, a Slovenian, was 28 years away, and a quarter century would pass before future three-time MVP Nikola Jokić, a Serb, would gain NBA stardom.

***

Petrović was used sparingly in two seasons by Portland and was traded in January 1991 to the New Jersey Nets, where he averaged 22.3 points per game with the 1992-1993 New Jersey Nets, making All-NBA Third Team.

Portland management messed up. Petrović would have been the perfect heir to Ainge, who bailed on the Trail Blazers after the 1991-1992 season and had reached his prime.

“What’re you gonna do?” Drexler said years later of Petrović riding pine as a Blazer, alluding to Terry Porter and Ainge as guards who could not have their playing time sacrificed. The 6-foot-5 “Petro,” though, could have spelled Ainge and small forward Drexler as a sixth man.

Instead, the franchise went into a slow decline, perhaps subconsciously trying to make up for giving up on Petro by signing another European star, Arvydas Sabonis, a greatly skilled Lithuanian center who could pass and shoot the three as well as Jokić but was hobbled much of his NBA career.

Petrović, meanwhile, died in a car crash in which he was a passenger on June 7, 1993, in Germany. Reggie Miller has since sung his praises as a feared marksman who could talk trash in multiple languages.

Refusing to invest in Petrovic was one of the first big mistakes the team made. By now, any remotely informed Blazer fan knows the team chose Sam Bowie over world icon Michael Jordan (1984), the best ever to play the game if artistry and elegance are factored in.

That hurts.

Portland fans too know about Greg Oden going No. 1 in the 2007 draft over Kevin Durant (and Stephen Curry). Ouch. Durant and Curry each belong to the Top 10 of best ever NBA players.

Myriad other blunders have plagued the franchise. Portland did get Bill Walton right in 1974 because he led the team to its only title—but hold on: In 1972, Portland selected draft bust LaRue Martin with the No. 1 pick, while a guy named Julius Irving (Dr. J) went No. 12. Irving too is arguably one of the 10 greatest players, certainly stylistically.

Portland has made so many wrong moves over the decades the franchise surpasses being ankle-broken. In 2000, Portland was on the upswing with 59 wins but inexplicably traded away young center Jermaine O'Neal to the Indiana Pacers, where he went on to be a six-time NBA All-Star.

The last few years have seen Portland in further trouble after the franchise could not adequately build around stars CJ McCollum and Damian Lillard, both of whom have since been traded.

But there were small cost-effective moves that could have been made to mitigate the pain, starting with drafting in-state college players who would boost Trail Blazer marketing and be instantly popular with the crowd base.

• 2016: Oregon State defensive stalwart Gary Payton II goes undrafted but becomes a solid role player with Golden State after several years in the G-League. Portland signs him two years ago but gives him right back to the Warriors for peanuts in 2023. Payton opted into a $9.1 million contract this year. All NBA scouts whiffed from the get-go.

•2017: Despite being Pac-12 Player of the Year, UO’s Dylan Brooks is drafted in the middle of the second round (45th). Memphis takes him, and NBA talking heads soon proclaim the Grizzlies have worked wonders developing the colorfully hyper forward. Brooks and UO coach Dana Altman might beg to differ: He scored 19 points in his NBA debut. Portland had sniffed and passed. This year Houston signed Brooks to a four-year, $84 million contract.

•2017: A different sort of cat, Chris Boucher—an adept shot-blocker with a corkscrew three-pointer—is not drafted. He’s hurt, reason scouts. Smart franchise Golden State, hip to underrated state-of-Oregon players, signs him. Boucher ultimately gets two NBA title rings, signs for three years and $35 million with Toronto. Another miss by Portland.

•2020: UO’s Payton Pritchard, a consensus first-team All-American point guard with deep three-point range, is taken by the Boston Celtics with the 22nd pick, orchestrated by Danny Ainge. Pritchard, a graduate of West Linn High School, wins an NBA ring in 2024, hitting two half-court shots in the finals. In 2023, he was rewarded with a four-year $30 million extension. Portland overlooked him.

2024: UO center N'Faly Dante, a player who cares about getting his degree, peaks in the NCAA tournament, as the Ducks make an improbable run. Not surprisingly, he doesn’t get drafted but signs with the Houston Rockets. Portland might have had a decent back-up center with a minimum salary.

***

Savvy Portland fans know one solution exists to rescue Portland from irrelevancy: Phil Knight finds a way to buy the team.

In the meantime, Portlanders can breathe easy knowing Colin Cowherd of The Herd TV sports talk show knows only one way to diplomatically reference the Trail Blazers: “I like them. They have good young talent.”

Where is a good young player who could be gotten in the late first round and help a franchise down on its luck? Is there an old-school point guard who knows how to pass first, can cut to the hoop yet bury the three? Portland, Atlanta and Washington seem to need a bone.

Go south to Sin City, lazy scouts who watch too many Duke videos: His last name is Thomas. That’s all you get.

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