SIDELINES : Petrovic to Miss NBA Preseason

Drazen Petrovic, the Yugoslavian basketball star who signed a contract this summer with the Portland Trail Blazers, will miss preseason play because of back surgery.

Trail Blazers’ President Harry Glickman said Tuesday that the flamboyant guard, considered by many to be the best player in Europe, will miss the team’s training camp and the exhibition season.

“The hope is he’s going to be ready to go by the start of the (regular) season,” Glickman said, “but the bad news is, in his particular case, training camp and the exhibition season would have been really critical, and he’ll miss that.” Petrovic is unaccustomed to NBA play and needed the training camp, which starts Oct. 6, to adjust to the U.S. professional game, Glickman said.

Petrovic will have a disc fragment removed from his back.