The High-priced Yugo

Two months after his 15th birthday Dražen became the youngest player ever to score in a Yugoslav league game. Then, at 20, after spurning South Bend, he left Šibenik's local club team to join Cibona. "He definitely made the right decision not to go to Notre Dame," says Miroslav Pecarski, the Marist College forward who's also on the Yugoslav team. "He played 70 or 80 games a year and practiced twice a day. He got much more experience. I think he plays like David Rivers now, but better."

Could Trail Blazer vice-president Bucky Buckwalter be blamed for sidling up to Petrović in July in Rotterdam, before the Yugoslavs played Britain? It's unclear whether Petrović has an authentic escape clause in his Real Madrid contract, or whether the Baby Star believes he can simply stop accepting pesetas and thus be free to start accepting the Trail Blazers' dollars after next season. What is clear is that Petrović wants to try the NBA. "He wants the challenge," says Pecarski. "You have to take everything you can in life. If you're the best in Europe, why stay at that level?"

"Today Bucky Buckwalter tell me for Portland I do playmaker," Petrović says, shortly after blowing the Brits away. "You see this game today? I have 15 assists."

Tiens, says the Frenchman, how cloying and self-centered! Basta, says the Italian, what a brilliant sense of showmanship! When the coffee klatsch returns from Seoul, millions of Spaniards will be sitting in the middle, not knowing which side to take.