Divac, adamant: “Was I wrong about Doncic? Time will tell...”

Vlade Divac is one of the greatest players in the history of basketball. A center who was ahead of his time, a 2.16 m giant who moved like a small forward and was able to run the court, pass and shoot (in addition to doing everything that classic centers did as well as anyone).

He was part of the historic Yugoslavia side that, before the war, amazed the world at the 1990 World Cup and the Eurobasket in 1989 and 1991. Three gold medals that are unforgettable for what was achieved and how it was achieved: the 1991 Rome team had Djordjevic, Radja, Kukoc, Divac, Paspalj, Danilovic, Perasovic, Savic… A year earlier, at the 1990 World Cup, the team included Drazen Petrovic and Zeljko Obradovic. And in 1989: Petrovic, Radulovic, Cultura, Kukoc, Paspalj, Zdovc, Vrankovic, Divac, Danilovic, Radja… a block of absolute legends.

Petrovic and Divac were close friends and generational companions, but they ended up separated by the Balkan conflict (one Croatian, the other Serbian) and did not settle their differences before the tragic death of the unforgettable Sibenik guard in 1993. A story, perfectly reflected in the documentary Once Brothers (ESPN, 2010), marked by what happened after the victory against the Soviet Union at the end of the 1990 World Cup in Argentina. A local fan of Croatian descent jumped onto the court with a Croatian flag. Divac snatched it from his hands and threw it, and that was the point at which the friendship between the center and Petrovic (both of them in the NBA at the time) was broken. It was said that Divac had trampled and spat on the Croatian flag. In the midst of the war, some considered him a national hero and others an enemy of the worst kind. “I didn’t want to show any rejection towards anyone, I just wanted to protect the team and make it clear that we were Yugoslavia’s team, not Serbia’s, Croatia’s or any other republic’s,” Divac later said in the famous ESPN documentary.

Even though Petrovic’s tragic death in a car accident came before the reconciliation, Divac, who is now an NBA ambassador (“Basketball will always be an important part of my life”) did not want to miss the wonderful tribute to Petrovic that took place on September 5 in Zagreb and that brought together the cream of the Balkan basketball world. After the celebration, Divac, who does not usually talk much to the press (“now it’s the turn of the new generations, I’ve already said everything I had to say”), sat down with the Croatian media Index and talked about his entire career. From his beginnings, the historic Yugoslavia national team, Petrovic, the Lakers, the trade for Kobe... and yes, also his decision, when he was an executive with the Kings, not to select Luka Doncic in the 2018 draft. Something he still justifies.

Thirty years without Drazen Petrovic: “It is sad that he is no longer with us, but I am happy to be at this tribute. After so many years, we are all together in the same place. Drazen has united us. He was the best of all of us. He opened paths, doors for us and for the young people of today.”

Modern day basketball, and basketball of the past: “I prefer the basketball of my time. Of course, the new generations will say the opposite, but that is the beauty of basketball. It never stops advancing, introducing new trends, bringing things back… it is always changing. Basketball now is totally different from that of my time, just as that time was different from that of the generations before ours.”

USA Basketball’s struggles at the 2024 Paris Olympics: “This USA team may not be better than Michael Jordan’s in 1992, but it’s not far off. It’s a great team, but European basketball has made a lot of progress. You only have to look at the Europeans who were in the NBA then and now, that’s the answer, that’s why we’ve come so close. Now 30% of NBA players are European. When Drazen, Paspalj, Volkov, Marciulionis and I went, we were on our own.”

Six years in a row with the NBA MVP awarding players born outside the United States: “If you had told me this back then, I would have thought it was science fiction, but today you can’t imagine the NBA without non-American players. I’m very happy that Giannis Antetokounmpo and Nikola Jokic, especially Nikola, have shown that they are the best of the best.”

Is Jokic already the best European of all time? “The numbers and the results say so. And the basis of sport is results, so I don't think there is a dilemma.”

Divac, Radja and Kukoc in the Springfield Hall of Fame: “It’s fascinating, something incredible, miraculous. It was a special generation. Even if you forget about the results. We stay in touch. We talk, we know how the families are doing, we love each other. Sasa Djordjevic could also be in the Springfield Hall of Fame, but he didn’t have the NBA career that he could have had through sheer talent.”

Yugoslavia’s incredible defeat (leading by nine with 41 seconds left) against the USSR in the 1986 World Cup semi-final, including their catastrophic turnover in the final seconds: “It was one of the most difficult situations in my life, I even thought about quitting basketball. I was 18 and still playing just for fun, but then I realised that in our territories basketball was something huge, bigger than life. We lost a nine-point lead in 45 seconds, and the shock in our country was unprecedented. Even though I was just a kid, I was attacked from all sides, I was attacked a lot. In the bronze medal match against Brazil, Kresimir Cosic put me in the starting five just to cheer me up, to stop me from thinking about the defeat. The night after the defeat was terrible, but I had the support of everyone in the national team.”

The Yugoslavia of the 1989 Eurobasket: “I think it was the best team in history, that there has never been a team so dominant, so powerful if we exclude the Dream Team of Barcelona 92. It was the best example of the beauty of basketball, the explosion of a generation with unprecedented talent. We didn’t play to score baskets, but to enjoy scoring those baskets. I remember actions in which Kukoc and I passed the ball five times before putting it in. It was a wonderful generation.”

Joining the Lakers, in 1989: “I remember perfectly the first time I walked into the locker room and saw the locker that said ‘Magic’. I pinched myself because I was sure it was a dream. At that time, none of us watched NBA games live - we could only watch games on video tapes. We passed them around and watched them so many times that we wore them out, until you couldn’t see anything anymore. Magic had a similar mentality to Drazen. He had an incredible competitive spirit, he wanted to win at all costs. With his charisma alone he made everyone better than we were and he immediately realized that playing with me could be beneficial for him. I was a young center, with a lot of mobility, I ran counterattacks… that suited him very well because of his way of playing, running and passing in transition. He loved me from the first moment. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar had just retired, but he stayed with the franchise for a season to work with me individually. I try to teach him his hook, but that’s innate. It’s such a unique move that only he could execute it with that level of perfection.”

Leaving the Lakers to facilitate Kobe Bryant’s arrival: “I know it’s a game show question: which player was traded to the Charlotte Hornets for Kobe Bryant… and the answer is Vlade Divac. I was the only one left from the previous team when Magic and the others left, and the Lakers wanted to make that trade when they were re-signing the team. They actually wanted to trade someone else, but the Hornets were adamant that it had to be me. And the Lakers also had to make salary cap room to sign Saquille O’Neal. I was upset, of course, I didn’t want to be traded. I didn’t want to leave, but in retrospect, I would have traded for Kobe, too.”

Refusing to join Charlotte almost scuppered Kobe’s arrival in LA: “When they told me, I refused. I made it clear that I played for love and that I wouldn’t do something I didn’t want to do. That if I had to stop playing, I would. The money is great, but I played for pleasure and if not, I wasn’t going to play. When they realized that they weren’t going to convince me, they changed their strategy. They met with me and asked me to go to Charlotte for at least two or three weeks to see if I liked it. I had been through some very bad days, but when I went to Charlotte I liked it, I saw that it could be good for me and I ended up accepting.”

Signing for Red Star, despite being a Partizan legend, during the 1999 NBA lockout: “It was a strange set of circumstances, like an adventure in life. But I wasn’t even criticized much at Partizan, they knew that I played out of love for them and for my national team and that everything else was just work. It all started as a joke. When the NBA lockout hit, a friend asked me if I wanted to go to Red Star. I jokingly said no problem, but that got back to the club and they did take it seriously. And they said yes to everything: the money I asked for, the insurance they had to pay, that everything had to be paid in advance… everything I asked for was said yes to, so there came a point where I couldn’t say no.”

The unforgettable defeat of his team, the Sacramento Kings, against his former team, the Lakers, in the 2002 Western Conference finals, including Robert Horry’s last-second three-pointer in Game 4: “I don’t dream about that shot by Horry, I don’t care, I don’t need an NBA ring to know how I played. We had a great team and I think we were better than the Lakers that year. If we had won, we would have swept the Nets too, like they did (4-0 in the Finals). I’m very proud of that Sacramento Kings team. For me, we won. Just as I consider that Serbia emerged as the real winner of the Olympic tournament in Paris. The Kings were a small team, with fewer financial possibilities and much less media attention than the Lakers. But we showed that we could play basketball better, and more beautifully, than them.”

His coach at the Kings, Rick Adelman, asked him to make his introduction to the Hall of Fame. Years before, he coached Petrovic at the Blazers and did not give him any opportunities: “He asked me to make his introduction because the results at the Kings were the most important thing for him to enter the Hall of Fame and that was the first NBA team that played European basketball. Stojakovic, Turkoglu, Songaila… also played there. It is curious that he, who did so much with other European players, did not give any opportunity to the best European of all time. But Adelman had Porter, Drexler, Young, Ainge… in the Blazers' outside players at that time. In the NBA, especially then but still today, there is a rule: if you are a rookie, it does not matter how old you are or what you have done before in Europe. You have to go through an adaptation phase. There the hierarchy is very important. Drazen had no patience and it was not Adelman's fault because he had very good players in those positions. So it was clear to Drazen that he had to go so he wouldn't spend his time sitting on the bench."

Luka Doncic as a possible next NBA European MVP: “For talent and level of play, he is on the right track. But Nikola Jokic takes great care of himself. I would love for Doncic to win the MVP, but he has to take better care of his body.”

The decision, when he was an executive with the Kings, not to draft Doncic: “We already had De’Aaron Fox as a point guard, who we had only drafted a year earlier. And I thought Fox was going to be our next franchise player. Time will tell if I was wrong. Right now it seems that I was, but I have faith that Fox will have a great career. Doncic and Kyrie play together because Kyrie can be a more pure scorer but Fox, like Doncic, needs to have the ball in his hands. I could have drafted Doncic, but I would have had to trade Fox. It’s funny because the Suns, who had the number 1 pick, didn’t draft Luka either and they had Igor Kokoskov as their coach, who had coached him in Slovenia. The Hawks drafted him, but traded him to the Dallas Mavericks. I love watching Luka, I really like the way he plays, but I had my reasons for doing what I did. Maybe I was wrong, time will tell…”

Relationship with Sasa, Doncic’s father: “They said that I didn’t choose Luka because of the bad relationship he had with his father, but that was nonsense that was said in the press. I know Sasa very well, I appreciate him a lot. He had nothing to do with that. I follow Luka and he is going for the good change. All he has to do, I repeat, is take care of his physique.”

All-time team of European players: “I’ll start at the end: pure center Kreso Cosic, next to him Nikola Jokic, small forward Toni Kukoc, shooting guard Drazen Petrovic and point guard Sasa Djordjevic. It’s difficult, there are so many more fantastic players. And I left out Radja, but I’m emotionally indebted to Kreso. They’re all from the former Yugoslavia, but apart from Arvydas Sabonis I don’t see who else, of the rest, could get in there. Tony Parker for Djordjevic? No, not at all.”