25 years ago today on June 7, 1993 Drazen Petrovic was killed in a tragic automobile accident at the age of 28. Already a legend in Europe, Petrovic joined the Portland Trailblazers for the 1989-1990 season at the age of 25 (the Blazers had selected him in the 1986 draft and owned his rights). He was coming off his best NBA season with the New Jersey Nets in 1992-1993, and entering the prime of his career. He was one of the league’s best shooting guards, but yet was very underrated during his short four-year tenure in the NBA. The criticism of the league at the time was that they weren’t promoting the new wave of European talent, and at the time of his death Petrovic was contemplating returning to Europe to play. The Nets retired his jersey in 1993, and history has come to respect how great of a player Petrovic was. He was elected into the Hall of Fame in 2002. His Champion jersey is one of the rarest and highly collectible.
Hi, any chance you might end up adding a section for shorts? If you have (know someone) who’s an authority on them I’ve been trying to verify/confirm a pair I have for several years now. If you think you can help send me an email so I can provide some pix/info. Cheers, Mark
PS – this is an amazing site (project of luv) and its been super useful over the years. I hope to try and do a similar Sports Specialties (beginning with NHL team scripts 86-98) someday.
Hey there,
I’m a jersey collector from germany and NBA fan for almost 30 years now.
Let me say, I love your site…great work!
I got a question regarding a jersey I saw on ebay recently.
It’s a Jerry West LA Lakers jersey with a Hardwood Classics tag and size tag on the lower left.
It’s the blue road jersey from ’65 with sewen numbers and letters.
I googled like crazy to find something about this, but I can’t. (I can only find jerseys from Adidas or M&N)
Do you know if this is a legit one?
Keep up the good work and don’t abandon this blog!
Regards
Kai
Thanks for checking out the site. In Europe only, around the time of 50th Anniversary of the NBA in 1997, Champion did release Authentic throwback jerseys with the Hardwood Classics tag. The jerseys are duel tagged, with the jock tag (size is NOT numerical, it’s S, M, L, XL, XXL) and the Hardwood Classic tag. The Jerry West jersey you are referring to is legit. Here are the Champion Hardwood Classics Authentic Throwbacks I’ve seen/owned (maybe I’ll make a gallery someday when I have time):
Walt Frazier – Knicks (white)
Julius Erving – NJ Nets (white)
Julius Erving – Sixers (red)
Bobby Jones – Sixers (red)
Moses Malone – Sixers (red)
Alex English – Nuggets (white/rainbow logo)
David Thompson – Nuggets (white/rainbow logo)
Abdul Jabbar – Lakers (Gold/script logo)
Magic Johnson – Lakers (Gold/script logo)
Jerry West – Lakers (Blue/script logo)
Larry Bird – Celtics (white)
Hi!
We spoke some time ago about the tags on the replica jerseys.
Sorry to message you here my question is out of context on this post but i couldnt find your email to contact you in other way.
My question is, i’m really curious, why there are no sizes 52 for the replica dream team jerseys 1992 olympics and 1996 ? I find that really odd, i always see size 48, but never seen 52 online in about 8 years of constant searching lol, did the champion even made dream team 1992,1996 size 52 for the replicas?
Thanks
For the USA jerseys (1992 Olympic, 1994 FIBA and 1996 Olympic) champion did not produce a size 52XXL. In fact, Champion didn’t produce a size 52XL for any jersey until the 1996-1997 season.
I listed my Champion Nets Petrovic replica on ebay a few years ago. I new it was hard to find but didnt know it was probally the rarest champion nba replica jersey. It was in as close to new condition as you could get. The buyer complained about a small wrinkle and wanted $30 of the $150 back which I sent. I don’t think I realized how rare it was until I saw them relist it for $600. Live and learn.
I think a Andrei Kirilenko or a stromile swift jersey is even more rare I will even say those two are top 5 of rarest jersey ever
Kind of like comparing apples to oranges. Petrovic was hitting his prime and developing into a superstar , so theoretically Champion should have produced a decent quantity of his jersey but didn’t…mainly because the Nets sucked and the NBA wasn’t promoting it’s European talent heavily at the time. Kirilenko and Swift were basically rookies and unknown talents when Champion stopped producing replicas after 2001-2002, so those jerseys are expected to be rare since Champion was limiting production for all players at that point.