In the summer of 1993, after his best NBA season and the Nets' first-round elimination by the Cleveland Cavaliers, Dražen travelled to Poland, where the Croatian national team was playing a qualification tournament for the 1993 Eurobasket. He was contemplating departure from the Nets, disappointed tension between himself and, to his belief, envious teammates, as well as the fact that the Nets had not yet extended his contract; he told American reporters that the lack of recognition in the league had him also considering leaving the NBA completely and playing club basketball in Greece: it was later rumored that Dražen had agreed on terms with Panathinaikos BC, as the story of PAO's owner, Pavlos Giannakopoulos, allegedly offering a signed contract with blank honorarium terms became a part of Dražen's legend. For personal reasons, Dražen decided not to return to Croatia from Poland together with his teammates, but in a private vehicle.
Dražen Petrović died a passenger in a car involved in a traffic accident on the rain-drenched Autobahn 9 at Denkendorf, near Ingolstadt, Germany, at approximately 17:20 on June 7th, 1993, four and a half months before his 29th birthday.
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Originally Posted by eleventh guardian
