Vlade Divac
Throughout my professional basketball career, I have always voiced my patriotism for my native land.Collection: Patriotism
The people of the Balkans are like a dysfunctional family. We may fight and argue, but in the end we are family.Collection: Family
Basketball is like life and life is like basketball. It's just a game. So lets play the best we can while we are still here with love, compassion, selflessness fairplay and supporting each other to be bigger and better human beings.Collection: Best
Well, the league is changing every year. It changed when I came. It changed before me. First of all, we have to be thankful for all those guys in the '60s and '70s. They made this league one of the best sports leagues in the world.Collection: Thankful
I am thankful to the Kings organization, all the Kings fans, my family and all the people who supported me throughout my career.Collection: Thankful
To build a friendship takes so much time and so many years. To ruin it, just seconds.Collection: Friendship
I had to earn the respect from everybody, from referees to opponents, but my teammates, they saw some European guy coming here and I had to prove myself. Luckily, I proved myself, but with big help from the entire Lakers organization.
In NBA anything is possible.
I really, really like Los Angeles.
The Lakers are really the biggest team in the world. Everybody knows the Lakers.
I started playing in school. Lots of kids in Yugoslavia play basketball.
It's really tough in the NBA.
I don't know what is flopping. I think Derek Fisher does a better job of that than I do. It's taking a charge. It's for the refs to decide.
My dream, play in NBA. When I come here, very difficult for me. It's new country, new language. But is still basketball for me.
Thank God there was no yellow card in basketball because I would get a red card every game.
In soccer, you don't want to see anybody get hurt.
Well, I tried to play defense. But when they did call a foul on Shaq, I tried to make sure they called a foul.
I like geography. I think I know every country in the world. If someone from another country plays for my team, I will know where he is from.
Because I play in NBA, I am like ambassador of Yugoslavia. Los Angeles before, nobody hear of Yugoslavia. Now I think much people who look at basketball hear of Yugoslavia.
One year I grew 15 centimeters.
Yugoslavia is a little country, and everybody likes basketball. If I don't play for my national team, everybody be sad.
I thought, 'I'm going to play in Yugoslavia, then I'll go to play in Italy or Spain.' Then I'll be 28 or 29 and I'll try NBA. I never thought I can play in NBA because NBA was totally different world for us in Europe.
NBA is totally different in style. In NBA, we play much more aggressive, much harder. It's not time for thinking. In Europe, we play every week, one game. Here we play every second day so if you lose, you don't have time to think about losing. Just go forward.
I'm a Yugoslavian who loves America - my kids are Americans, you know. They're always going to be half and half because they were born here and, I hope, live here, but they will always have a background of Yugoslavian. I'm still a Serbian, but with an American lifestyle.
I would just like the people of Yugoslavia to live good.
Since the age of 12, I was on my own. Everything I do, I get my parents' support.
L.A. is very big and very nice city.
If you try to win and you lose, you can say, 'OK I tried.'
I like baseball.
I don't enjoy playing against Shaq.
I always enjoy playing against great players. You can learn from the best.
When you do something bad, you can't sleep.
People in the NBA, as far as Europeans or international players, they respect them now. I didn't have any respect from anybody. I had to earn my way.
I love basketball, but it's just entertainment, just business.
I'm happy that I helped basketball develop; I was trying to help basketball be the world's most popular sport, to bring people together from all over the world, it doesn't matter the background. We are all the soldiers of basketball.
Playing basketball taught me the value of determination and teamwork.
Being a role model was part of my life and I could either ignore it or take responsibility. I chose to take it.
In any profession, you can't reach the top without loving what you do.
Am I perfect? Not at all. I'm just like everybody else.
Success in sport comes with responsibility.
It's a team game. I feel happier when I pass the ball than when I score.
I can't be against my people.
The year when I left my country, there was still peace. The year after, the war broke out, a lot of people lost their homes, lost their families. When I go back 20 years later I still find people living in refugee camps. So I tried to help them find homes.
We are trying to give something back to not just our own communities but to the communities of the world.
It's always a good feeling when you can help instead of just receiving help.
Jerry West really helped a lot, and so did players like Magic Johnson. That's why, at the end of my career, I wanted to finish my career with the Lakers.
I don't drive Yugo anymore, I drive Porsche.
To me, the game of basketball has always been about love.
I was taller than most of the kids. When I started playing basketball, my coach put me at point guard. Europeans do that sometimes.
I have to give a lot of credit to David Stern to open up the league, but also in my case, Jerry West and Dr. Buss that had the vision of international guys making it to the NBA.