30 of 30 ads usually start with a hypothetical “What if I told you …”
Those are the questions the audience waiting in the rhetorical bliss. But the catch is not hypothetical. They are all what happened. They are more historical than hypothetical.
So what if I told you a budding friendship rooted in national pride can be ripped apart by something completely out of control friends? That is what happened to Vlade Divac and Drazen Petrovic, when civil war broke out in Yugoslavia in the early 1990s. The two leaned on each other for support as a teenager and later as they travel in their best basketball league in the world, but friendship is torn apart by senseless with their former country, Yugoslavia.
“Once Brothers” (Tuesday on ESPN, 8:00 ET) is at least 30 to 30 war, in which Michael Tolajian takes a trip to Divac to find out what happened to their friendship with Petrovic, when he was unfairly put on hold for life .
Divac was talking about the experience over the phone:
For many people who did not get to experience the Yugoslav team, can you describe what it was like to play with such loads, a young team?
This is a great team, but he started in our early days when we were 13 and 14 years. We met each other in training camps for our national team and since then we have become part of every other family. Later, when we started to play for the national team, the first major tournament was the 1988 Olympic Games in Korea. For those few years we have been Dream Team Europe, just like the Dream Team in ’92 for the U.S., we can beat anyone and everyone is talking about us. Everyone was talking about how good we were, and most guys on this team played in the NBA. It was fun to play with each other.
Civil war in Yugoslavia was indeed erupted in 1991, but he was aware that you guys were, so young, that is building it up like you guys were together? And did you already know that if a civil war happened was going to be some line drawn between you?
Not at all. They are completely separate from politics. We have dealt with have been traveling around, we played the games and the first time we heard something was going on in the middle of ’91. We thought it was going to take a month or so, and then everything was going to be fine. But then he went into a brutal civil war where a lot of people were killed and many people are friends and everything was destroyed. And so is ours. We were only part of it. We could not deny that not affect us, because it really was.
Can you talk about his friendship with Drazen before this happened? How have you been close, especially the NBA around the same time together?
Well, Drazen was older than four years of Dino (Radja), Toni (Kukoc) and myself. We looked up to him as the leader of our team. Those few years ago when we played for the senior team, in fact they were roommates. If I had a relationship with him, we’d talk about our future, and the game basically decided in the same year to go and try to be part of the best leagues in the world. Even in that first year, when he had the chance to play in Portland, we talked on the phone every day, supporting each other and talk about problems and how we should represent ourselves in the NBA. For this relationship, which is why I was hurt so much later that we just went separate ways.
How good he was as a player? I think it’s a pretty decent cult following of his now that people know that it is extremely good. How well do you think he could be that he died so tragically and early?
Definitely could be the All-Star player. He was one of the best players ever in Europe. He had a reputation for scoring machine. He was averaging 40 points per game when he played in Europe. When he came here, the first couple of years, had a chance to play in Portland. However, when he was traded to New Jersey, he finally showed his potential. He became one of the best players on the Nets this year and it is up to the playoffs. I’m sure if he is still alive, he would definitely be All-Star player.
Why is the friendship between the two of you so bad in such a quick manner? Obviously, there was a lot of tension and harm done to the civil war. But the distance was changed after it is so difficult to communicate? Looking back now, why you think it was such a falling out?
I think looking back now it’s all politics. When things happen like that you just have to decide what to do. Will you choose to take sides, or choose to be honest about things, or anything else? You simply can not ignore what is happening in this situation.
For my point I decided to be outspoken against the war. I’m sure he felt the same way. I do not know how much you understand the situation back home, but we’ve had with various republics of Yugoslavia and of different nationalities. A lot of people also have mixed marriages. These children must prove that they are on one side or the other. I think it is, in my opinion, Drazen was confused and tried to stay away from war and at the same time worry about what happens to his parents back home.
I know that he went back and did what he could, but how tough is that for guys like you, Tony and Dino know your family and friends are going through that every minute until it so far?
So sometimes you feel happy that you are away, and sometimes you feel sorry that you are not there to be near her parents and family. But at the same time you try to do what is the best thing you can do to help them out. I remember once I asked my brother to come and stay with me, but he decided to stay with their parents. Parents never felt like you should leave the country because they want to stay. Same thing with Drazen parents, they want to stay there and it was very difficult to live too far away and after the news about what is happening there.
What is travel like in figuring out what you need to know about this movie?
So it’s very frustrating back then. Why are they ignoring me? Why do not you want to keep in touch with me? But when you put all these things together in the movie, you realize that this is done, because it is a very dangerous time. From a distance I understand what is happening. It was a lot of politics behind it.
Did you experience a problem like that with Tony, Dino, and his other teams or do you know if they experienced the same sort of thing with Drazen? As a division of decline?
You know, different people react differently. Dino I’ve always been more open. He will come to me and say, “Well this is a bad home situation and with people talking differently, we should not go together in public. Come to my house and we can talk.” I was fine with that.
I was fine with Drazen’s decision to just ignore me and tell me to stay away and all the stops when we sit down and talk. That bothers me because I felt like having a friend for life or have no friends of the time. If you are a friend, you are a friend. And that’s what hurt me back then.
When he died, obviously such a horrible event, what were you feeling other than sadness? Did you think you regret it because it never got to talk?
Absolutely. First of all, being so close to him, it was a shock for me when I heard the news that he died. He was so young, a guy who really had a career ahead of him. He eventually started playing in the NBA as he knew he could succeed in the NBA. Knowing that I was never going to have a chance to sit down and talk and see what is the reason that we had a bad relationship in the past two years definitely hurt me.
Do you feel like you got the answers you need with this film? Do you feel content with what you’ve learned?
Yes, I finally found closure in a conversation with his brother and his parents and visit them in Zagreb. I remember it was a bad year with the political turmoil back home, I go back to Croatia for 20 years. The first time I went, I went straight to Drazen’s grave and I finally found peace, because it was something I always wanted to do.
Are you able to be close to his family and again at this point it is too far?
No [it's not too far], I remember even before I went to Zagreb to see his mother for the first time I met her a few years before in Slovenia for a charity game. She came up to me and started crying, and she told me she was so grateful that I always talk about Drazen in the media and keep his legacy. Since a lot of people, especially young people, do not realize how great he was as a player.
She opened the museum in Zagreb, Dražen keep their memories. From this project, I am grateful to the NBA Cares program, we are all put together donations for Drazen’s museum back home. That’s nice.
How do you feel about the current state of the field there now?
Even then, as I said, I was always open about the situation. People always said you should not get into politics and talk about politics. But I think politics is all around us. If you do not react to situations like this and say it’s bad or good it is, politics are part of our lives. So I think today, finally going in the right direction, because we have a special pair of Presidents of Serbia and Croatia, which seem to be nice people. They finally went ahead and talk about peace between the two countries and those people. So hopefully, time can heal those bad years in the 90-ies.
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