30 for 30 -- Once Brothers

[Sedale Threatt]

If you're in the mood for some nostalgia, this documentary is well worth your time. I was totally glued to the screen for 90 minutes. Wonderful to see how pioneers like Vlade (pre-darkside with the Kings, when he and Magic were still skinny/young) and Petrovic came up, and the impact they had on the game, and painful to watch how their relationship was torn apart by circumstances largely outside their control. Very, very well done.

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=5674098

[Slava]

That was fantastic to watch. I only watched it in stretches while working out at the gym and would need to take some time to go through that completely.

Petrovic seemed like he could have been the best European player in the league and that Yugoslavian team looked stacked with great passers, ball handlers and shooters.

Its really a shame to see how their friendship ended by a spur of the moment reaction on Vlade's part but it still seemed like Petrovic took it a little harder than he should have considering they have been like brothers for most of their lives but that's patriotism in that part of the world.

I have seen far too many Croatian athletes that hold their national pride higher than most others.

[Sedale Threatt]

You should; it was great from start to finish.

Listening to Coleman and Kenny Anderson talk about Petro was fascinating. You could just see the awe on Anderson's face when he talked about how he never backed down, even against Jordan. They had a great clip where he was bumping Jordan during a lull, like F you, I'm coming after you. Dude had an incredible amount of heart.

And I know what you mean about the nationalism. It's hard for me to judge as an American, as we don't really have anything like that. But it was difficult for me to understand how Petro took it so hard, and shunned one of his best friends like that over a misunderstanding.

At the same time, I think I can imagine what it be like.

One of my colleagues did a story about four or five years ago about an Albanian kid whose family move to San Antonio. Great basketball player. He and his family had to hide out in the woods for a couple of months because the Serbs had invaded their village -- raping, pillaging, the whole nine. One of his brothers snuck back in to get some food or something, and they shot him on sight.

That would be pretty tough to turn the other cheek on.

[Slava]

Yeah I watched that part and the way he was bullying and trash talking to Reggie Miller was pretty awesome too. His shooting touch is exquisite and footwork reminds me of Kobe on his good days imitating Hakeem. Most European players who grow up playing soccer have a tremendous footwork compared to the traditional American players.

It was still pretty amazing how he managed to get his shots off while looking pretty awkward and completely unathletic compared to the elite swingmen of the era.

Dumars' interview was even more impressive for me considering he is held as the measuring stick to swingman defenders in the 90s.

Re: Partitioning, the process never goes without significant bloodshed and other war crimes. My dad's uncle covered the India-Pakistan partitioning as a photographer and some of his stories were sometimes too harsh to believe. Witnessing women getting violated in trains, bodies of infant kids without heads etc were just enough to drive him into a alcohol problem for 6 years after he returned home.

[Sedale Threatt]

Amazing what humans are capable of -- good and bad. Not sure if you ever recover from stuff like that. I hope he at least made peace with it.

[Tesla]

wrote this on the general board topic..

On the flag incident, Divac/Petrovic

basically it boils down to pre-civil war in the early 1990's. Basically during WWII the Serbs were on the allied side, and the Croats were on the German/Fascist side, and since they were bordering countries you had a lot of bad blood during WWII. The flag used in the incident was a WWII Croatian Fascist flag (Ustasa) its a group that some associate with death camps and crimes against humanity during WWII (as they were allied with the Nazi Germans, and Fascist Italians). Divac was obviously Serbian, and there is basically no business waving around that kind of a flag around... it's almost as if somebody was waving around a Nazi flag with a Jew playing on the court...

Love Divac... he's an awesome person, real stand up guy. I've met him a few times, very down to earth, the opposite of egotistical or snobby, he's a peoples kind of guy.

Also... Petrovic was half Serbian if I'm not mistaken, his last name is Serbian... which always made his stance a little bizarre to me.


RE: Sedale's Albanian story... yes there were tons of incidents like that in the balkans in the 90's, it's terrible, but it happened on both sides throughout history, in the 90's Serbs may have been a larger part of the terror only because they had much more military strength, but in a civil-war like that, nobody is right... its all just damn ugly.

[Sedale Threatt]

I wasn't trying to single any particular group out, just to illustrate how it might be hard for somebody to turn the other cheek when they feel they've been the victim of an atrocity. In the same situation, I'd like to think I'd handle it like Vlade, and choose my friends over an ideology, but it takes an awfully big man to do that.

[Tesla]

Oh no, totally got you Sedale. And I completely agree with you, was just saying how pretty much every side has a story of atrocity, and basically it sucks for everybody... just nasty.

[Slava]

Amazing what humans are capable of -- good and bad. Not sure if you ever recover from stuff like that. I hope he at least made peace with it.

Yeah he lived a long life but he cut himself off from a lot of things and effectively became a recluse.

[LAKESHOW]

vlade messed up. he should not have touched the flag. anything at that point, with heightened tensions within their country, just stay on the court, dont touch people, dont touch flags, just high 5 your teammates and get back to the lockerroom. who gives a crap of his intention, he shouldnt have went there.

yugoslavia was made up of these different sections, different republics with croatia having their flag. so why screw with it.

[Sedale Threatt]

It's unfair to single out one person for a situation that big. Everybody involved probably said or did something they later regretted. And it sounds like Vlade at least made an attempt, multiple attempts actually, to make amends.

[Tesla]

yugoslavia was made up of these different sections, different republics with croatia having their flag. so why screw with it.

It wasn't just a plain Croatian flag... it had a WWII Nazi/Facist symbol on it. There is a major major difference.

[LAKESHOW]

well ok, im glad vlade did what he did to the flag, because of his anti-nazi/anti-facist stance.

[Sedale Threatt]

One thing I did get a kick out of, besides all the incredulous looks he got, were the two Croatian gangsta kids they showed in the city square as Vlade strolled through. Good to know the U.S. does not have the market cornered in that department.

[hourockman]

yugoslavia was made up of these different sections, different republics with croatia having their flag. so why screw with it.

It wasn't just a plain Croatian flag... it had a WWII Nazi/Facist symbol on it. There is a major major difference.

Of course it had to be some random d-head fan to knowingly flaunt it right in the Serbian player's face. Vlade should've shoved his ass right off of the court and away from the celebration that he and his teammates earned. That prick was doing nothing more than being nefarious. It may or may NOT have had the same effect.

[rugby-hook]

I was in Kosovo in 2001 to evaluate the effectiveness of NATO peace-keeping effort. Besides seeing a strong unwililngness by nationalist leaders to find better solutions, I saw about 6-7 kids wearing Allen Iverson jerseys, which was wild.

That part of the world is just different and underscores the fault lines in our humanity. Only by working to create a system that allows a peacful change of governments will there ever be any progress. Yugoslavia had 6 republics and to date, the NATO effort has allowed the people to pick their governments and progress has been made. I don't think petro and vlade would have lost their friendship today after all of the work that has gone on over the past decade/

[Sedale Threatt]

An acquaintance of mine has done a lot of insurance adjusting in Iraq, and he said it's pretty much the same thing over there. The battle lines among the various ethnic groups and nationalities have been dug so deeply that they will likely never be filled in.

[Sous]

hi , could you get another link for the video ? they mustve removed this one because its not working for me

[DEEP3CL]

Too bad Vlade and Drazen couldn't reconcile their relationship before his death. It's the one thing that will eat at Vlade for the rest of his life.