Here's an Artist Trading Card-sized ink drawing I did of Drazen Petrovic, from an old basketball card of him.

As a kid, both basketball and collecting basketball cards were a pretty big deal to me.  I spent a ridiculous amount of hours trying to get autographs, in addition to the staggering amount of time I spent playing ball.  It's still pretty fun to dig out some of those cards and see the history of awful athlete haircuts.  

Petrovic played for a couple of season with the Trail Blazers, before getting traded to New Jersey.  He was one of the first European players to actually have any success in the NBA (which is kind of a given, these days), but died tragically in a car accident in the Autobahn at the age of 28.  Ultimately, he was inducted in the the Basketball Hall of Fame, largely for his international play (he once scored 120 points in a single game in Europe).

I have a handful of autographed cards of him, and it always feels weird when I see one of them.  Everyone has to get used to seeing players they liked as a kid retire, and then later realize you've actually watched some players' entire careers from draft to retirement.  But realizing that you've actually met athletes who have passed away is kind of mind-boggling.

c.