Two Croatian stars, Drazen Petrovic and Dino Radja, did great things for the global game as did Chicago Bulls legend Michael Jordan back in the 1990’s.
The recent hit 10-part ABC/ESPN/Netflix documentary series chronicling the 1997-98 Chicago Bulls title-winning team “The Last Dance” really shined a bright spotlight on the all-time great shooting guard Michael Jordan. And there’s still a lot of reactions pouring out from various people that were around MJ and the Bulls during all those great dynasty teams and years from the 1990’s.
One of the recent opinions that poured out regarding Jordan and the Bulls from The Last Dance came from the Croatian former 6-foot-11 Boston Celtics big man Dino Radja. He had a Facebook post on June 7 that brought about a comparison he had likening Jordan to that of a fellow countrymen of his and former Olympic teammate. Radja compared MJ to that of former New Jersey Nets shooting guard Drazen Petrovic.
Here’s part of the significance of the post where he likened Jordan to Drazen.
"It’s hard to write something about confirmed that hasn’t already been written. After watching the last dance I have to make a comparison. I will not talk about toy quality because it doesn’t even matter in this situation. Just a head. Everything that’s in Jordan’s head was also in drazenovoj’s. The same. That’s why it was what it was. The winner above all. Games were lost here and there, championship and titles, but the head was the one who did not allow surrender and which was push without compromise. My head also learned a lot from him and copy out of him. Who then has the idea of anything. And now to confirm all one situation that few people know. The last match of drazen against Slovenia in Poland. Totally doesn’t matter because we played the qualification finals and the first three go to EP. So the game for nothing. No one even need to play. However, that was never an option for him"
The mindset of Petrovic and MJ might be similar from their playing days in the NBA. And both former NBA shooting guards are in the Hall-of-Fame. But there is a limit of where the comparison ends in terms of mindset on the floor.
The record for Petrovic against Jordan was also 10-1 in the regular season. And the two never met in the playoffs. Jordan averaged 30.5 points per game, 6.0 rebounds, 5.4 assists, 1.8 steals, and 1.0 blocks. He did all that while shooting 50.4 percent from the field and 52.6 percent from beyond the arc in those 11 tries against Petrovic. Meanwhile, Petrovic averaged 16.0 points per game, 3.8 rebounds, 2.6 assists, and 1.3 steals.
The point here is not that Petrovic was eaten alive by Jordan on the hardwood, but that there were differences in mindset.
Not to take anything away from what Petrovic did as a real trail blazer for Croatian (and Eastern European hoopers in general) basketball players in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. But Jordan did have a different level that he reached on the floor.
The Hall-of-Fame honors for both Radja and Petrovic were well deserved. Petrovic and Radja were great for the game of basketball, especially for expanding its global impact. And Petrovic was taken way too early, when he tragically passed away back in 1993 at the young age of 28.
There are accounts of how much Jordan respected Petrovic, which is a testament to how good the Croatian star was, and we should celebrate what he brought to the game of basketball. Radja is also a Croatian star that is worth celebrating in the recent history of the NBA and basketball in general.
Petrovic was a one-time NBA All-Star selection (during the 1992-93 season) and was inducted into the Hall-of-Fame as part of the 2002 class. He was inducted seven years before Jordan, who was part of the 2009 class.