SACRAMENTO, Calif. _ The story of one man's remarkable rise to eternal basketball greatness starts with a boy and his soccer ball on the streets of Prijepolje, an old-world town of about 13,000 people in southwestern Serbia.
Vlade Divac grew up in a modest apartment, one of two sons raised by working-class parents in a region first inhabited as far back as the Stone Age. Some never venture far beyond the lush green hills that surround Prijepolje, which has one elementary school and a weekly newspaper. Divac would set out to see the world, but that might not have happened if a local coach named Nikola Apacic hadn't encouraged him to try a new sport when he was 12 years old.
"I guess I wasn't good at soccer," Divac said. "So I played basketball."
Divac, 51, is one of the most beloved players in Kings history. Now the team's general manager is a Hall of Famer. He is the 15th player in franchise history and the second in the Sacramento era to enter the Hall of Fame, joining Mitch Richmond.
Divac was presented Friday in Springfield, Mass., by NBA great Jerry West, the silhouetted figure in the NBA logo and a basketball visionary who brought Divac to the United States. West, then the general manager of the Los Angeles Lakers, selected Divac with the 26th pick in the 1989 NBA draft, the same year the Kings took Pervis Ellison with the No. 1 pick.
"I remember picking Vlade up at the airport," West said by phone Wednesday from Washington, D.C., a day before receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor. "He didn't speak any English and he had these two big duffel bags. I looked at him and said, 'My, gosh, this guy doesn't look like your traditional American player.' He was disheveled-looking, like he had been up three days getting here, as he even looks sometimes today, but he was jovial, he smiled and you just couldn't help but like him."
West's decision to draft Divac upset his top scouts, who urged him to select a particular college prospect who wound up playing fewer than 150 minutes over three seasons in the NBA. Divac, arguably the best player in that draft, played 1,134 games over 16 seasons.
Divac helped revolutionize the center position as a savvy, smooth and skilled 7-footer who could pass, shoot and run the floor with ease in his early years. He was the first foreign-born-and-trained player to log more than 1,000 games in the NBA, paving the way for generations of European players who would follow in his enormous footsteps.
Divac is one of only seven players in NBA history to record 13,000 points, 9,000 rebounds, 3,000 assists and 1,500 blocked shots. The others are Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Tim Duncan, Shaquille O'Neal, Kevin Garnett, Pau Gasol and Hakeem Olajuwon.
"Vlade was a special player," former Kings teammate Chris Webber said. "He was one of the first big men hybrids and his impact on the game was felt worldwide."
Divac's indelible basketball legacy and his role in globalizing the game cannot be overstated, but those closest to him insist his basketball contributions are surpassed by the kindness and generosity he exhibits in day-to-day life as a husband, father, friend and humanitarian.
"I'm starting my 32nd year covering the NBA and he's the best human being I've ever been around _ period," Kings play-by-play announcer Grant Napear said. "Best leader I've ever been around and the best teammate I've ever seen, but first and foremost he's just a great person."
