Skip to content
LPBN-Icon-v1
ImmigrationProf Blog
A Member of the Law Professor Blogs Network

Immigrant of the Day: Vlade Divac (Serbia)

By immigrationprof

Vlade_divac_portrait The National Basketball Association Finals starts this week, with the Los Angeles Lakers facing off against the Boston Celtics. The Celtics are one of the few teams with no international players.  This week we will highlight the Lakers’ rich international player history through our Immigrants of the Day feature. 

Today’s Immigrant of the Day is Vlade Divac (born February 3, 1968, in Prijepolje, Serbia, Yugoslavia).  A retired NBA player, Vlade is 7’1″, played center, and was known for his deft passing skills.

Drafted into the NBA in 1989 by the Los Angeles Lakers, Divac was one of the first European players to have an impact on the league. Under the tutorship of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Magic Johnson, he improved his play and adopted to the American style of the game. Despite the fact that he didn’t speak any English, he quickly became popular among the teammates and the public for his charm and joviality. In the 1989/90 season, he was selected into the NBA All-Rookie Team.

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 programs such as The Arsenio Hall Show and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. He appeared on Larry King Live in 1999.

On the big screen Divac took part in basketball based movies Eddie, Space Jam, and Juwanna Mann. He was traded to the Charlotte Hornets for the draft rights to Kobe Bryant in 1996 and spent two seasons playing there. He signed as a free agent with the Sacramento Kings in 1998 where he played for six seasons.

Divac helped revitalize the Sacramento Kings franchise. The Kings rose in the NBA ranks, becoming a perennial playoff contender and later on a championship contender and was one of the best teams in the NBA. After the 2003-04 NBA season, he became a free agent. He signed a deal to return to the Lakers. In 2005, Divac announced his retirement, ending his sixteen-year basketball career.

KJ