Frightful shock. Unbelievable pain. Overwhelming grief.
When the heartbreaking news of Kobe Bryant’s death stunned the world Sunday, one-time members of the Nets community were revisited by the painful memories of June 7, 1993, the night superstar Drazen Petrovic perished in a devastating car crash on a rain-slick Autobahn in Bavaria.
“Tremendous shock. We were all shocked, we couldn’t believe it,” said Jim Lampariello, the Nets’ vice president at the time of Petrovic’s death. “With Kobe, it was the same. The tremendous shock.”
Along with other negatives.
“Hurt, pain, grief, all of the above,” said Kenny Anderson, a Petrovic teammate now coaching basketball at Fisk University in Nashville, Tenn., while still recovering from a stroke suffered last year. “I was shocked with the whole Kobe situation. I guess it was the way it happened with both. One in a car, the other in a [helicopter].”
In 1993, Twitter didn’t exist. The internet was a toddler. But something existed then just like now. Rumors.
“When I heard about Kobe, it wasn’t yet confirmed, and the first thing that went through my mind was early June, 1993. It brought me back, 100 percent,” said Jayson Williams, a Petrovic teammate and now a healthcare recovery specialist in Florida. “I was devastated. I remember crying and crying.”
A natural reaction. The same reaction the NBA world experienced this week.
“Trauma is inescapable,” said former NBA ref Bob Delaney, an ex-undercover New Jersey state trooper who for more than 30 years has been a leadership consultant working with the armed forces, law enforcement agencies worldwide, plus pro and collegiate leagues in dealing with post-traumatic stress.
So how does a player, a team, a league deal with the death of one of its own?
“What they’re feeling are normal reactions to an abnormal situation,” Delaney said. “What I would underline to them is their grieving is individual. It’s not a 10-step program or that within a week or 10 days everything is going to be fine.”
There are tools now. Unlike 1993.
“Back then, it wasn’t something that was being spoken about in the sports world,” Delaney said. “There was no help being offered.”
Bryant, of course, almost was a Nets draft choice. They worked him out three times in 1996. But Bryant’s family and agent warned against drafting him. The Nets opted for Kerry Kittles and Bryant became a Laker. But he is forever linked to the Nets, including in grief.
“When I heard about Kobe, I was thinking of all the athletes we lost,” said John Mertz, the former Nets director of public relations who made calls to Petrovic’s teammates.
From that 1992-93 team alone, the Nets lost Dwayne Schintzius in 2012 at age 43, Hall of Fame coach Chuck Daly in 2009 and, of course, Petrovic.
“I was an assistant on that team and that was so totally difficult [to deal with] back then,” said Paul Silas, one of Daly’s assistants who played 16 seasons then coached 22 more. “This was the same thing, same terrible feelings.”
The Nets bonded in their healing through a memorial service for Petrovic at a Croatian Roman Catholic church in Manhattan.
“That helped,” Lampariello recalled.
Nets GM Willis Reed along with Chris Dudley and Chris Morris traveled to Croatia for Petrovic’s funeral. Croatian-American activist Vedran Joseph Nazor, who became the Nets’ liaison with the Croatian community, helped arrange the trip. Nazor came to the U.S. in 1968 at age 14, lived in Philadelphia and became familiar with some Philly high school basketball legends, including Joe “Jellybean” Bryant, Kobe’s dad.
Nazor’s ex-wife was a huge Croatian basketball fan and got him hooked on Petrovic. Then came that sickening day. Nazor went to work in Midtown.
“I remember buying The Post and seeing the back page. … And it said Petro is dead. I couldn’t believe it,” Nazor said. “I was shocked. The Nets contacted me and we arranged the trip to Croatia.”
Which was part of the healing, the type of healing the NBA world seeks now.
“When two great basketball players lose their lives in car [and helicopter] accidents, it’s just crazy,” Anderson said. “I don’t know what to say.”
Something Petrovic said before he left on his ill-fated trip sticks with Williams. Petrovic was feuding with management over a contract extension. Rumors floated that he already had signed a European deal. Before he left he was watching TV with Williams. The two lived in the same building.
“I remember I could not find my remote control,” Williams said. “He said, ‘You can have my remote because I’m not coming back.’ Of course not coming back meant not coming back to the Nets.”