Vlade Divac
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| | colspan="2" style="text-align: center;"|<small>Divac playing for the [[Sacramento Kings]].</small> | | colspan="2" style="text-align: center;"|<small>Divac playing for the [[Sacramento Kings]].</small> | ||
Revision as of 17:45, 2 April 2012
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| Divac playing for the Sacramento Kings. | ||
| No. 12, 21 | ||
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| Center | ||
| Personal Information | ||
| Date of birth: February 3, 1968 | ||
| Place of birth: Prijepolje, Yugoslavia | ||
Nationality:  Serbian
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| Height: 7 ft 1 in | Weight: 260 lbs | |
| Career Information | ||
| NBA Draft: | 1989; Round 1 / Pick 26 | |
| Selected by the Los Angeles Lakers | ||
| Pro career: | 1989-2005 | |
| Career History | ||
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| Career Highlights and Awards | ||
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| Vlade Divac at NBA.com | ||
Vlade Divac (Serbian: Владе Дивац) (born February 3, 1968, in Prijepolje SFR Yugoslavia) is a retired Serbian professional basketball player who spent most of his career in the United States' NBA. At 7'1" he played at center and was known for his deft passing skills.
Contents |
Basketball Career
He began playing basketball in his home town Prijepolje for the team KK Elan. He began his professionally in Yugoslavia playing for Sloga Kraljevo. In 1986 he started playing for KK Partizan Belgrade.
Drafted into the NBA in 1989, he played for the Los Angeles Lakers and was one of the first European players to have an impact on the league. He was traded to the Charlotte Hornets for the draft rights to Kobe Bryant in 1996. He later signed as a free agent with the Sacramento Kings where he played from 1998 to 2004 alongside fellow countryman Peja Stojaković.
Divac earned a reputation for flopping, or deceiving the officials into calling a foul on the other team by purposley flopping on the floor. Veteran NBA forward P.J. Brown claimed that Divac might have been the best of all time at flopping. Divac freely admitted doing so, adding that he usually did it when he felt like the officials had missed some calls and owed him.
After the 2003-04 NBA season, he became a free agent. He signed a deal to return to the Lakers and was part of a grand plan to overhaul Laker basketball. The Lakers, following a defeat in the NBA Finals, had traded away or released most of their players, including star center Shaquille O'Neal; Divac was supposed to fill that void. However, Divac had back problems and was unsure if he could play. On July 14, 2005, Divac announced his retirement, ending his sixteen-year basketball career.
Post-Basketball Career
Divac is an active restaurant investor in the Sacramento, California area. He is also a prominent philanthropist. He is one of the founding members of the Serbian charity, Group Seven Children's Foundation.
From 2005 to 2006, Divac was employed as European scout for Los Angeles Lakers.
Divac is currently the head of operations for Real Madrid Baloncesto basketball club.
Divac has been involved in many non-basketball endeavors while still actively playing in the NBA, and especially after he retired.
KK Partizan President
In late 2000, after the overthrow of the Milosevic regime, Divac and former teammate Predrag Danilovic took over their former club KK Partizan. The club was a launching pad for both of their basketball careers in late 1980s and early 1990s and it was only fitting they'd now play prominent parts in its management. Divac became the club's president while Danilovic took the vice-president role. Freshly retired Danilovic was actually running the club's day-to-day operations since Divac was still very actively involved with the Sacramento Kings at the time.
Though the duo never stated so outright, their main motivation in getting involved with KK Partizan again was perceived to be gaining the upper hand on club's eventual privatization process once the new Law on Sports gets passed in Serbian parliament. Since the exact ownership structure of publicly owned KK Partizan isn't really clear, potential investors decided to stay away, at least until the law appears. Divac and Danilovic appeared pretty much out of nowhere in this regard but enjoyed plenty of fan and public support because most preferred to see their beloved club owned and operated by its former stars rather than a faceless corporation. However, after few years the duo ran out of patience and pulled out of the venture in late 2004 because it became too much of a financial burden with no end goal in sight.
While they currently perform no official functions at the club, Divac and Danilovic continue to be involved with it in lesser capacity.
Attempt to Buy Knjaz Miloš
Simultaneously with his NBA career and KK Partizan involvement, Divac had his hand in another highly publicized business venture - Knjaz Miloš takeover bid.
When the government of Serbia decided to sell its majority stake in the company, several potential buyers expressed interest. Divac hooked up with the French food products giants Danone, but they ended up losing out to a competing offer from FPP Balkan Ltd. that bought 212,223 shares of the company, which made it the majority owner (58.07%).
Real Madrid Head of Basketball Operations
In June 2006, through his friendship with Predrag Mijatovic, Divac linked up with Ramón Calderón as part of his candidate bid for the presidency of Real Madrid polideportivo. When Calderón closely won the club elections on July 2, 2006, Divac was introduced as the head of operations at Real Madrid Baloncesto basketball club.
However, Divac's role in the club's day to day operations is largely symbolic, and even he himself admitted as much in a March 2007 interview for Croatian weekly Globus: "I literally do nothing and I only serve as part of the royal club's image. I only accepted the job because of Mijatovic who's currently the football director at Real".
Major Career Achievements
- Won gold medal with Yugoslavia at the 2002 World Championships in Indianapolis, USA.
- Earned first selection to NBA All-Star Game in 2001
- Ranked 12th in the NBA in field-goal percentage (.503) in 1999-2000
- Ranked 2nd on the Kings in scoring (14.3 ppg), rebounds (10.0 rpg, 10th in the NBA), assists (4.3 apg) and blocked shots (1.02 bpg) in 1998-99
- Ranks 4th in Lakers franchise history with 830 blocked shots
- Appeared in the 1991 NBA Finals against the Chicago Bulls and has averaged 12.9 ppg, 7.7 rpg and 2.4 apg in 63 career NBA Playoff games
- Named to the 1989-90 NBA All-Rookie First Team after averaging 8.5 ppg and 6.2 rpg for the Lakers
- Earned gold medal with Yugoslavia's under-18 nationals at the European Kadet Championships of Basketball in Rousse, Bulgaria in 1985
- Earned gold medal with Yugoslavia's under-21 nationals at the European Junior Championships of Basketball in Gmunden, Austria in 1986
- Earned gold medal with Yugoslavia's under-21 nationals at the FIBA World Junior Championships of Basketball in Bormio, Italy in 1987, defeating Team USA twice in that tournament
- Earned silver medals with Yugoslavia at the 1988 and with Yugoslavia at the 1996 Olympics
- Earned gold medals with Yugoslavia at the 1990 Argentina and with FRY at the 2002 FIBA World Championship
- Earned gold medals with Yugoslavia at the 1989 Zagreb, Yugoslavia 1991 Rome, Italy and with FRY at the 1995 Athens, Greece European Championship
- KK Partizan Belgrade Yugoslavia Championship in 1987
- KK Partizan Belgrade Yugoslavia National Cup Winner 1989
- KK Partizan Belgrade Yugoslavia European Cup Winner 1989
- Joins Hall of Famers Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Hakeem Olajuwon as the only players in NBA history to amass 13,000 points, 9,000 rebounds, 3,000 assists and 1,500 blocked shots.
- The Kings retired his No. 21 jersey in a ceremony on March 31, 2009
Trivia
- During his time with the Lakers, Divac's popularity and marketing potential, in addition to his entertaining and good-natured personality, were picked up on by the American TV industry. As a result he appeared quite a few times on Los Angeles-based late night programmes such as The Arsenio Hall Show and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. He also appeared in American sitcoms Married... with Children and Coach, as well as in the short lived Good Sports sitcom starring Farrah Fawcett. On the big screen Divac took part in basketball based movies Eddie, Space Jam and Juwanna Mann.
- Divac is genuinely adored by most of the public in his native Serbia. As such he is in major demand for high profile marketing campaigns, even well after his playing career has ended. He regularly appears in commercials pitching products ranging from Atlas Beer to Societe Generale Bank mortgage credit plans.
- Presidential candidate Boris Tadić received a major boost when Divac backed him in the 2004 Serbian Presidental Elections. The two played a game of one-on-one street basketball as part of a campaign photo-op leading up to the second round runoff vote. Tadić ended up winning the election.
Family
Vlade Divac and his wife have two sons, Luka, Matija, and a daughter Petra, who is adopted. Her biological parents were shot by Kosovo Liberation Army snipers.
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