Vlade Divac and Drazen Petrovic were two of the greatest European basketball players of all time. Vlade retired recently, and Drazen, sadly, died back in 1993 in a car crash. Had he lived, he would probably be a household name by now, just like Divac is. After the war broke out in former Yugoslavia, however, these two teammates stopped talking – Vlade is a Serb, while Drazen was a Croat, and the nationalistic rhetorics in both countries must have influenced them, just like many other friends and colleagues at the time, even family members. Even though Divac managed to set things straight with former teammates, Croatians Toni Kukoc and Dino Radja, he was too late to make peace with Drazen.
Documentary director Michael Tolajian found the story of war, friendship and sportsmanship to be interesting enough to include in ESPN’s 30 for 30 series which features some of the greatest sport stories from the past 30 years. The documentary, called “Once Brothers” (Serbian: Jednom braća) will also include the tale of the best European national team of all time, the Yugoslavian national team from 1988-91, which, beside Divac, Petrovic, Kukoc and Radja had such names as Žarko Paspalj, Predrag Danilović, Stojan Vranković, Jure Zdovc, Zoran Čutura, Zdravko Radulović, Zoran Radović, Zoran Savić and Aleksandar Đorđević.
I’ll let you know when the documentary is finished, in the meantime, here’s a clip of Vlade from Bill Kralovec’s blog:
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The only national team that could have rivaled the dream team, had it stayed together, and definitely one of the best national basketball teams of all time (European or other).
Just to think back to the times when these masters of the sport were playing and what they were capable of is enough to give me goose bumps. Divac, Petrovic, Kukoc, Radja, Paspalj, Zdovc – it is a crime that the basketball world was deprived of them playing together for longer. Each one of them had unbelievable skill, what they produced on the court was magic and a pleasure to watch. Players like Divac and Petrovic were pioneers and paved the way for other foreigners to play in the NBA and these days there are more than ever.
Just looking at the basketball successes the ex-YU countries (especially Serbia of course ) have had since that time shows the depth of basketball talent in this region and a testimony to how great these guys, the ‘best of the best’ were.
R.I.P. Drazen
I can’t help smiling every time I watch it.