HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS — Vlade Divac knew he had a story to tell. But for so many years, he just didn’t know if or how it should be told.
Thanks to the NBA Entertainment produced “Once Brothers,” the latest hit in ESPN Films’ acclaimed 30 for 30 series, we all get to experience Divac’s journey as if it were our own.
Divac is the narrator and one of the stars of “Once Brothers,” a fascinating film detailing the story of he and Drazen Petrovic, his former teammate on the Yugoslavian national team, their friendship and rise to NBA stardom that was destroyed by a 1991 civil war in their homeland.
Divac joined us on the Episode 27 of the Hang Time Podcast (this is part II of a special episode) to discuss the film, how it came to be and much more.
LISTEN HERE:
With their relationship strained by civil war between Divac’s Serbia and Petrovic’s Croatia, the two men who were once like brothers continued their NBA careers on opposite sides of the league, Divac in Los Angeles with the Lakers and Petrovic in New Jersey with the Nets, and opposite sides of a conflict beyond their control that their friendship simply could not survive.
When Pertrovic was killed in an auto accident in Germany on June 7, 1993, the men hadn’t spoken a word to each other in nearly two years, despite having faced each other on the court. “Once Brothers” tells the powerful tale of their rise as the first two European players to earn NBA stardom, the demise of their friendship and Divac’s attempt to deal with the fallout.
It’s a must see!
“Once Brothers” airs tonight on ESPN at 8 p.m. ET
As always, we welcome your feedback. You can follow the entire crew, including the Hang Time Podcast, Lang Whitaker of SLAM Magazine, our super producer Micah Hart of NBA.com’s new All Ball Blog and your host Sekou Smith on Twitter.
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vlade divac looks soo beautiful
That flag is symbol of Croats living under boot of Serbia for 100years. That flag is symbol of tears, lost lives and symbol of longing for independent state. What is wrong of longing for independence?!
He looks so fake!
Strange Vlade mentioned the Nazi stuff in the video interview above. He seems to mean this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usta%C5%A1e
But it seems to be no “U” letter on the flag to be clearly what Vlade means. This made it look like Vlade just attacked the fan. For now it would be a big suspension in NBA but sure 20 years ago plus internationally the rules were much softer.
Consequently it seems that Vlade should have recognized in the above video that he was wrong 20 years ago in part because of being overly emotional after winning the title, etc. Good they still had Serbs and Croats on the same team in 1990. The Soviet team they defeated still had a Lithuanian coach but already no Lithuanian players. Soviets sure ended up losing that game but had no risks of flag incidents. So in some extent the Yugoslav team took those extra risks and won the game. Soviets took no risks of playing together that time and lost it.
Croats never lived under Serbian boot for 100 years. They did live under Austrian and Hungarian boot for over 200 years. Communist Yugoslavia was created and run by Croatian and Slovenian leaders…Serbians were prosecuted for any kind of nationalism by communist led by Croats and Slovenians. It’s fact that very same Croatian flag today was waving once at the front of concentration camps in Croatia during world war two.
At the break up of Yugoslavia, Serbs that live in Croatia, were longing for their independence but were short of getting one since the borders of Croatia were drawn long ago by Croatian led communist.
虽然我看不懂这是什么，但是我发表一下，起码代表我来过这里！
I’VE WATCHED THE MOVIE ON ESPN, AND AFTER WATCHING IT MY THOUGHTS ON DIVAC HAS IMPROVED BUT I will sa this as a proud croatian and most imporant as a man who doesn’t hate any nation or people in this world – that falag was NOT a nazi croatian flag.
That flag is nazi flag, read history. when croatian flag have U that is nazi flag or flag nazi croatia from second world war. Divac never hate Croatian people but hate Ustase. Tony Kukoč stay friend with Vlade and Dino Radja. When Aleksandar Djordjevic go on retariment he call Radja and Kukoč to be part of his retairament game in Belgrade and that two man was welcome with 5minutes standing ovations in Belgrade in Serbia, i was on that game. My english is bad sorry. Mogu ja napistai i na srpsko-hrvatskom
Was there really “U” on the flag? To me the whole point is that nobody can see that “U” on the video. Neither can I. Is there any slow motion or photo demonstrating the “U” on that flag? Otherwise it looks like Vlade makes a statement he cannot prove. He sais it was an Ustase flag, “just watch the video” but everyone can only see a “clean” Croatian flag on the video so far… I thought that the man with the flag could have said some Ustase slogans to Vlade but it could be only verbal and the flag had nothing to do with those.
Such a good movie, I wish there never was that stupid war in Jugoslavija
look Andrey B i dont know what history u know and what history u talking about. That flag on that world canpionship was flag of ,,Nezavisna drzava Hrvatska” or on english ,,Independent State of Croatia” from second world war. On that flag who Vlade took from that man is flag in that time that state Croatia not exist only be Yugoslavia. Did you know what that flag represent in Yugoslavia in that time and in Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Hercegovina, Slovenia and in some parts of Croatia if you dont know i tell you. That flag represent nazi, fascism and Jasenovac concentration camp in that camp was murder around 500.000 serbs, 30.000 jews 10.000 anti-fascism from Croatia. Divac dont hate anybody especialy people from Croatia but hate people who wonna to hide truth. Now i wont to enter in furter question or tematic on this subject because my english is very bad for that. I was born in Dubrovnik but i am banish from that because of war and now i live in Montenegro if u dont bealive read on wikipedia about this but i recomendet to read some historian books and u know what in that time that flag represent to us, to Divac and other.
The ,,Nezavisna drzava Hrvatska” flag is like this: http://hr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datoteka:Flag_of_Croatia_Ustasa.svg
The flag on the 1990 post-game video is clearly different: no U in the corner but a small cross right above the middle. The cross looks like here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ustashian_U_with_cross.png – but with no U.
What you say is sure correct on the 1990 reaction by Vlade. But now, in 2010, the flag may seem closer to the proper Croatian than the Nazi flag, strange why Vlade continues to call it Nazi. Is it because of that cross symbol on the flag? A lot of people seem to misunderstand those details.
You are absolutely right on the Nazi crime. But you do not keep calling “Nazi” someone for 20 years just because you do not like the person, you need some stronger reasons.
Good website=D Will require a good amout of time to ponder the article.