By Lefteris Moutis/ moutis@eurohoops.net
Peja Stojakovic was the last European whose jersey was retired from an NBA team. Petrovic, Divac and Ilgauskas were the first thee. So, who will be the next among Europeans who shined/shine in the NBA and will receive the same honor?
The ceremony in Sacramento, the home of Peja Stojakovic for eight years, was magnificent! The Serbian legend was honored by the retirement of his jersey and became the fourth European player in the short list of those who received such a honor.
The first was Drazen Petrovic. The Croatian legend died in 7/6/1993 at his 28 years in a car accident. “Mozart” played for two seasons with the New Jersey Nets and in 11/11/1993, five months after his death the jersey with number 3 retired in a moving night in the Meadowlands Arena.
Vlade Divac, “brother” of Petrovic and teammate of him in Yugoslavia followed. He was one of the pioneers in the NBA in the early ‘90s and his prime years were spend in Sacramento (1994-2004). Here you can watch the ceremony in 31/3/2009, when the jersey #21 retired.
The first and only European who had this honor and didn’t come from Yugoslavia is Zydrunas Ilgauskas. After twelve years in Cleveland, the Lithuanian center became the seventh player of the Cavs who saw in 8/3/2014 his jersey with #11 retired.
Who’s coming next?
There are plenty of Europeans who shined in the NBA the last two decades and deserve such an honor. There’s Detlef Schrempf who played 16 years with four different teams in the NBA and established himself as the best European in his era with Seattle Supersonics (1993-1999). But he has dual citizenship (German-American), so we will not include him in our list.
Toni Kukoc also, could watch his jersey being retired by the Chicago Bulls. Alongside the great Michael Jordan, the Croatian forward was one of the cornerstones of the best team of the ‘90s in the NBA.
Next to them, there are at least three active players who are already legends and we guess that the ceremony of their jersey retirement will be held soon. Dirk Nowitzki became the 17th player in NBA history, and the first European, to hit the 25,000-point milestone! Almost all these 16 years, since 1998, he’s the absolute star of Dallas Mavericks and was the ultimate leader of his team in their one and only championship in NBA history.
The impact of Tony Parker in San Antonio Spurs isn’t that huge compared to Nowitzki’s in the Mavs but the French guard is a franchise player in Greg Pop’s philosophy and a great distributor in the most successful NBA team during the last decade. In four of the five championships of Spurs in total, Parker was there.
At the end, Pau Gasol would be considered also as a candidate to be included in this list but during his 13-year career in the NBA he played in three different teams. He won two rings with Lakers, but the size and the lore of the team is so huge that makes it hard to see his jersey retired in L.A.