Divac Bears Burden : Surgery, Civil War and Now Duckworth

Vlade Divac had back surgery. Civil war began in his native Yugoslavia. Several longtime friends from the national team stopped talking to him. Now he’s being attacked by a 270-pound Duck.

On the other hand, he just got a six-year, $23-million contract.

Is this a great country, or what?

No Laker will forget the 1991-92 season, least of all Divac, who actually has a scar to remember it by.

Recovered physically, he’s under siege by the Portland Trail Blazers, particularly Kevin Duckworth, a bulky center eager to belly up to the thinner Divac.

Says Coach Mike Dunleavy: “The way people perceive Vlade, if they can beat him up early and get to him early and pound him and pound him, then he’s not going to have a good game. He’s got to get through that.

“But I think this has been somewhat of an aberration. The way they’re playing Vlade (double-teaming him)--in the past it wouldn’t really have bothered us because we had guys in the other spots who could really make you pay the price. We’re not capable of doing as much now. It can’t be all on his shoulders, but he’s got to play harder, and he’s got to be ready for more physical play.”

He is, Divac says.

It’s not the game he grew up playing, but it’s the one they play here every spring. If the slender Divac isn’t physically overqualified, check the record: He held his own against Hakeem Olajuwon last season and had little trouble with Duckworth.

Of course, every season is different.

“(The Trail Blazers) are hungry for the Lakers,” Divac said. “. . . They beat us, they kick us, they are fighting with us. It’s really, really sad to me. We have to go out there tomorrow and fight with them and try to win.”

And no season was ever like this.

It started in Paris, where one of the teams in the McDonald’s Classic was Pop 84, from the Croatian resort of Split.

Among the top Yugoslav stars, Divac is one of the few Serbs. At that time, Serbian forces were shelling Croatian cities and emotions were running high. Pop 84 captain Velimir Perasovic, once Divac’s roommate on the national team, walked past him without saying hello.

Divac says he has talked by phone with Croatian stars Toni Kukoc and Dino Radja, and that everything is cool. But the two Croatians in the NBA, New Jersey’s Drazen Petrovic and Boston’s Stojko Vrankovic, both cold-shouldered him.

“Before, Drazen and I came to each other’s place to spend the night, go to lunch, everything,” Divac said. “It was a very good relationship. Right now, we talk just at the game.

“Petrovic said a couple of words. When I saw Vrankovic, he just turned his head.

“I can’t believe it. I can’t treat people by race, nationality, religion. To me, it’s good men or bad men. That hurt me. Everything in our relationship of 10 years is broken. For 10 years, I spent more time with them than my brother.”

His brother, Ivan, was trying to enlist. Divac says he was afraid to answer the telephone for a month.

Then there was the matter of back surgery.

Divac had an operation for a herniated disk on Nov. 27 and sat out the next three months.

“It was the first surgery in my basketball life,” he said. “I was scared in the beginning that I never come back and play like I did before. There was much pressure on me. When I started to work out, I was happy. But when I came back on the court for a game, it was hard. I lost 44 games. I didn’t have feeling for the game. That took a long, long time to get back.”

He had a moment here and there--including the last weekend of the regular season at Portland, where he started tipping the ball from behind whenever Duckworth tried to dribble it. Divac had 25 points and nine rebounds and made an impression on Portland Coach Rick Adelman.

Duckworth was ejected in the third quarter of that game. He got his revenge in Games 1 and 2 of this series, though, outscoring Divac, 27-15.

In between, Duckworth complained that Divac was flopping and called the Laker center a “wimp.”

Divac knows enough English slang to be properly insulted.

“I was so mad,” he said. “I couldn’t believe he called me that. I never could say that, even if he was, let’s say, a wimp.”

No matter what, these feuds never hurt anybody. Maybe one day Divac and Duckworth will do a commercial together and become friends, like Magic Johnson and Larry Bird.