MADRID (FIBA Basketball World Cup) - Drazen Petrovic is one of the greatest players ever to compete in a FIBA World Championship.

He scored points in abundance and did so with panache.

Petrovic was an artist.

The 'Genius of Sibenik' is what some called him, while others knew him as 'Mozart of Basketball' or 'Amadeus'.

There will never been another like the Croatian legend, who died in a crash crash in 1993 at the age of 29.

A player who blossomed into Europe's most famous guard in the 1980s, Petrovic will forever be remembered as one of the game's finest players.

He dazzled at two World Championships for the former Yugoslavia.

At the 1986 event in Spain, Petrovic ran onto the floor for a game against the Netherlands and poured in 47 points, leading his team to a 95-74 triumph.

He had other big outings that summer, including a 29-point masterclass against the Soviet Union in the Semi-Finals.

Petrovic's high-scoring heroics weren't enough that day for Yugosalvia, who suffered a 91-90 defeat.

His team thrashed Brazil, 117-91, in the Bronze Medal Game and Petrovic ended up averaging more than 25 points per game.

At the 1990 FIBA World Championship in Argentina, Petrovic averaged 18.4 points in leading Yugoslavia to the gold medal.

His best performance that summer came in a 99-91 victory over the United States in the Semi-Finals, when he poured in 31 points.

Petrovic's brilliance was also evident at Olympics, including in 1992 when he averaged 24.6 points while leading Croatia to a silver medal.

He had shone for the former Yugoslavia at the Olympics in 1984 (Los Angeles) and '88 (Seoul), when the Yugoslavians captured bronze and silver, respectively.

Petrovic's excellence was also evident for the club sides that he turned out for.

He took his first steps in the game with Sibenik and played there until 1984 before going to Cibona Zagreb (1984-88), Real Madrid (1988-89), the Portland Trail Blazers (1989-90, and first half of 1990-91 season) and the New Jersey Nets.

Petrovic had his NBA success with the Nets, whom he joined midway through the 1990-91 campaign and played for through the 1992-93 season.

When it came to the NBA, he was a pioneer.

Top players from the old continent had yet to establish themselves in the league when he moved to America.

Petrovic, an All-NBA Third Team selection in 1993, blazed a trail for other Europeans to follow.

"If l learned anything in the NBA, then l learned to hold my own," Petrovic once said.

"No one's going to push me around.

"I have a first and a last name, I'm not just some passer-by.

"I know that some people don't like this, but they have to understand, no matter how miserable it makes them.

"There's room for Europeans, and not only in episodic roles."

In Zagreb, there is a Drazen Petrovic Memorial Center.

His name will always be prominent in Sibenik, too.

The city honored their favorite son by putting a bronze monument bearing his likeness next to the sports hall in Baldekin.

Petrovic was posthumously enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2002, and five years later in the FIBA Hall of Fame.

FIBA