ZADAR (FIBA) - One of the greatest basketball teams to ever play the game endured a tragic split in 1991.
 
In fact, Yugoslavia didn’t just have a great side for a three-year stretch beginning in 1988, but an awesome one.
 
Drazen Petrovic, Vlade Divac, Dino Radja, Toni Kukoc, Zarko Paspalj and Jure Zdovc were several of the prominent players in that squad.
 
Poised for maybe the best run in European basketball history, war erupted in the Balkans and ultimately affected the team.
 
Yugoslavia’s history meant that different nationalities were in the team.
 
People of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia and Montenegro could be in a Yugoslavia team at any given time.
 
Basketball is only a game, but all of the players were affected by the war and nationalist issues.
 
In a stirring documentary that aired on ESPN on Tuesday, Once Brothers, Divac looked back in time.
 
The recent inductee into the FIBA Hall of Fame served as the narrator for the program, a production that gives insight into Divac’s relationship with his teammates and especially Drazen Petrovic, the Croatian basketball legend that was killed in a car accident in 1993.
 
Divac recalls an unfortunate incident in the moments immediately after Yugoslavia’s gold-medal triumph at the 1990 FIBA World Championship in Argentina that caused a rift between himself and Petrovic.
 
The political situation back home was tense with Croatia in the early stages of breaking away from Yugoslavia.
 
There were some in the crowd who had flags from Croatia, not Yugoslavia.
 
In Once Brothers, Divac says one such flag holder on the court so aggravated him that the star took the Croatian flag and threw it down.
 
Divac was not, he says, a political person and for some time, he didn’t realize the impact that his actions would have.
 
But, as the war worsened, Petrovic began to withdraw and even said he believed Divac had been politically motivated.
 
For his part, Divac tried to stay close to Petrovic, but was unsuccessful.
 
The emotionally-charged Once Brothers shows that Divac went on to achieve great success after being drafted by the Los Angeles Lakers. He was fun loving and well liked while Petrovic struggled in the NBA at first with the Portland Trail Blazers with stiff competition at his position.
 
He was eventually traded to New Jersey and became a great success with New Jersey with the Nets.
 
At his funeral in 1993, more than 100,000 people attended but not Divac, who stayed away because of the political tensions of the time.
 
He grieved from afar, as did many others around Europe and the world.
 
Divac reveals in Once Brothers that years later, he does visit Petrovic's mother and brother, and that he is warmly received.
 
They share memories about all that happened.
 
Divac and Petrovic were not the only players impacted by the war in the Balkans.
 
Another was the talented point guard in that amazing Yugoslavian team, Zdovc.
 
Now a leading coach in Europe at Union Olimpija, Zdovc also found himself at the center of a storm in 1991 with Yugoslavia closing in on the EuroBasket title in Rome.
 
With political tensions rising, Zdovc withdrew from the national team during the competition, citing Yugoslavian aggression in his native Slovenia.
 
Luka Maselj, a journalist in Ljubljana that does work for Basketball World News, spoke to Zdovc on Tuesday night before Olimpija’s 72-66 Adriatic League triumph at Zadar – several hours before the ESPN broadcast.
 
“He didn’t know about Once Brothers, but was happy I called,” Maselj said.
 
“We talked about “those times” a bit.”
 
Here is that interview.
 
Jure, how did you see this period of your life that the documentary shows: Yugoslavia’s “golden” basketball years from the late 80s?
 
Jure Zdovc: That was a long time ago. As a joke, I like to say it happened in a previous life (laughs). A lot has changed since then: it was another time, it was Yugoslavia then. We were young … For me it was a great honor to come among these players who were really great. I think we played some fantastic basketball. It’s hard to explain it to someone who didn’t see us play, but we really enjoyed our game. Literally we could play with our eyes closed. Those were good old times – we really respected each other and hung out a lot. It was great! 
 
You must have a lot of great memories, but which one do you remember the most?
 
Jure Zdovc: Everything had its own charm – the Olympic games, the World Championship, all the preparation we went through. I especially like to remember the 1989 EuroBasket in Zagreb or even the 1990 Goodwill games in Seattle - probably because we won and I played very well. We were also great as a team and beat the USA in the middle of Seattle! I also like to remember the game between Yugoslavia and the Boston Celtics and playing against Larry Bird and all the other stars. Those were the times in which you weren’t able to see an NBA team every day, especially not live. You saw highlights from the Finals and maybe some other games, but otherwise, it was a far bigger thing, playing against a NBA team, than it is today.
 
Once Brothers is the title of the documentary that is being shown in the USA. Did you really feel like brothers – even though the team was multi-ethnic?
 
It’s hard to explain if you don’t know the context we lived in. We were great friends, respected each other and had a great time together. It was a privilege and I am very proud of it. Things changed a bit when Yugoslavia fell apart, but as life and time went on even those who had their ethnic-based differences – especially Croats and Serbs - managed to leave them behind. I never had trouble, as a matter of fact, only a few players did and I feel very proud that I managed to reunite them all for my testimonial “Basketball Giants” game in Ljubljana. A few days later, when Sasha Djordjevic had his testimonial in Belgrade, we were all together again, even though it didn’t look that way before we teamed up in Ljubljana. Sport and basketball won over politics. I was very happy.
 
Are you still in contact with the “brothers”?
 
The life we basketball coaches live doesn’t give us much time to socialize with people out of our work area. Zeljko Obradovic and Zoran Cutura are the two I have the most contact with. It’s hard to keep up, as we live so differently now. “Kuki” (Toni Kukoc) is in the USA, Drazen (Petrovic) sadly isn’t with us any more, Vlade Divac also stepped away from basketball a bit. I see “Diki” (Dino Radja) quite a lot, others – like Stojko Vrankovic – not so very often. I would surely like to see them all a bit more, but as I’ve said, the job I have doesn’t allow me. Hopefully we will see each other very soon anyway!
 
FIBA