Recently I was reflecting on some of my favorite players (
Scottie Pippen,
Dennis Rodman,
Joakim Noah & Vlade Divac) I noticed that there was one player in particular that was not like the others (to bring back an old Sesame Street bit) and that was Vlade Divac. I decided to take a closer look at why I ended up being so enamored with this player.
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| Vlade excited to have made it into the NBA. What a dream come true! |
It starts when I was living back in California in the early 90's. Vlade had been added to an already pretty good Lakers team. While I did live in the Bay Area, which is northern California, the Lakers were by far the most popular team in area due to their recent success. He seemed to stick out to me as a child as he seemed to be a different type of player and of course had unique look to him. Even as a kid I was pretty into basketball, and I use to have my mom read me basketball reference books as bedtime stories and in the morning before school. But the thing that sticks out the most to me was there was this one kid, which in retrospect I assume was Serbian or something pretty close, who had two Vlade shirts he would wear almost everyday, at least three times a week. I remember one was yellow and the other one was purple , Lakers colors, & I specifically remember the design on the purple one, which had a big picture of Vlade's mug on it.
Fast forward a couple years of my life, I had lost interest in Vlade due to the Chicago Bulls success and to be honest, hadn't thought much about him. I knew he was traded for Kobe Bryant (ouch Hornets, bet that still stings to this day Zombie Charlotte Hornets aka New Orleans Hornets).
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| Vlade, being a one-man fast break. |
But later, he started playing for the Kings, which was my second favorite team at the time due to going to multiple Kings' games a year in the Arco Arena. (I even was at the game which Bobby Hurley got into a car accident that ended his career.) The Bulls in the early 00's were bottom feeders and the Kings ended up being the team I was always rooting for come playoff time. I remember noticing Divac's great passing, especially for a big man, which I have always had a soft spot for (he might be the best passing big man of all time). He is among eight players in NBA history to record 13,000 points, 9,000 rebounds, 3,000 assists and 1,500 blocked shots along with Kareem, Shaq, Hakeem, Timmy, KG, and I am counting Wilt and Russell too though they didn't record blocks then. PJ Brown probably said it best when he said that Vlade might be the best flopper of all time. Though I hate flopping,
when Vlade Divac flopped his flops were true and pure, all other flops are just paying homage to the master (he should be getting royalties for these).
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| Vlade excited to not have to play on the Hornets anymore. |
Of course his beard, and lack there of when he shaved,
keep the beard Vlade, chicks dig it. I also was fascinated by his post game interviews and his accent which I would imitate terribly, but always would get me laughs
due to the sheer comedic force that is Vlade Divac. Vlade was always very lighthearted and even when he joined the Lakers and didn't know English he stilled proved to be one of the team's favorites,
which seemed to also happen on every team thereafter. He was a good dude to his future Euro teammates and Hedo Tukoglu and Peja Stojakovic on the Kings. He was among the first wave of Euro players that played and trained in Europe and were successful in the NBA. He truly was a prototype, an inspiration for Euro players today.
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| Vlade with his Eastern European Homeboys. Do you think Vlade was like that 35 year old at a college party when they hung out? |
But is wasn't just the game of basketball that was funny to me. He was in some
t.v. commercials and movie appearances that always made me laugh just because he is Vlade. How he was a prominent NBA figure during the Kosovo conflict. Of course, the 30 for 30, Once Brothers, documentary is pretty strong as well (sad they couldn't reconcile). Vlade remains very active in philantrophy and had even won awards for it and is on the Serbian Olympic committee. He even adopted a baby from Serbia. And then of course, there was the
military evasion which was later rescinded. Truly there is so much more to Vlade than being a basketball player. All the reasons above are why I miss Vlade and secretly wish he could play forever...
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| It was truly special the way he would complain about calls. |
If I haven't convinced you of Vlade Divac's awesomeness, you can always get a quality designer handbag from him for cheap...so at least there's that.
