Divac’s Reluctance Disappears

Vlade Divac views his impending trade to Charlotte as a way to help the Los Angeles Lakers pursue free agent Shaquille O’Neal and restock for a championship run.

He doesn’t mind helping out his soon-to-be former team.

“I’m happy for them. I’m a big Laker fan,” Divac said Tuesday after practicing with the Yugoslavian Olympic team. “If they bring in Shaq, that’s a big chance to build a championship.”

Divac initially resisted the deal that would send him from the Lakers to the Hornets for the rights to 17-year-old Kobe Bryant, Charlotte’s first-round draft pick.

He was flooded by all the usual feelings - shock, sadness, confusion - that confront a player facing a trade.

Making it difficult for Divac is his love for Los Angeles, where the Serbian native learned to speak English and has played his entire seven-year NBA career.

“It was tough for me,” he said. “The first couple of days I felt bad because I didn’t want to leave Los Angeles. I like the (Lakers) organization. They’re my second family.”

Divac was so intent on not leaving that he threatened to retire. Then his wife Ana visited him last week during the Yugoslavian team’s training camp in Germany.

“She told me, ‘You can’t do that. You’ve got to play, you’re still young,’ and I think she’s right,” he said. “I’m happy that she helped me to make this decision.”

The couple reached a compromise that calls for Divac to live in Charlotte during the season, while Ana, an aspiring actress, and their two young children remain in the family’s Pacific Palisades home.

“I knew I’m not going to move them from Los Angeles,” Divac said. “She told me, ‘It’s going to be tough for us, but the season is seven-eight months. You’re not going to be home anyway 3-1/2 months because of the road trips, so it’ll go fast.’”

Although the trade cannot be completed until Tuesday, when a moratorium on all negotiations and trades expires, it is considered a done deal.

By dumping Divac and the $8.5 million he was scheduled to earn the next two seasons, the Lakers would free room under the salary cap to pursue the Orlando center.

No hard feelings, Divac said.

“Seven years with the Lakers and I don’t have one bad thing to tell about it,” he said. “Even when I finish career in Charlotte, maybe I’m going to come back here and live in Los Angeles.”

Divac, 28, played five years in Yugoslavia’s top league before the Lakers selected him with the 26th pick in the 1989 NBA draft. Since joining the league, he has averaged 12.5 points, 8.7 rebounds and 1.6 blocks.

When he gets to Charlotte, Divac plans to explain to Hornets fans his initial reluctance to depart Los Angeles.

“I think they’ll understand I’m a family man and I didn’t want to leave my family. That was the most important thing for me,” he said. “I’m ready to go there and die for them on the floor.”