I remember years back Chick would occasionally make short mentions of Vlade and Petrovic having a tough relationship, but he wouldn't go much further into why. This doc was the first time I found out why. In the early 90s, I do recall Vlade and Petro not shaking hands while he would w/ Radja and Kukoc. Kukoc himself didn't seem all that thrilled about it himself, as a matter of fact, but they remained friendly. I recall a couple of fancy plays they made against each other one year and they had a chuckle and a point for each other.
I thought it was a good doc, but ESPN did some revisionist history in terms of Drazen's NBA career. Vlade was specifically known as the first Yugo to make it in the league and Drazen wasn't even a consideration until he burst out in 92 w/ the Nets. Very few NBA fans and commentators had an idea of how big Drazen was in Yugoslavia, initially. BSPN made it seem like Adelman was the one that held him down there instead of the standard rookie barriers that sometimes make it hard for even a good player to instantly make it big. Ainge was a very heady player and was FREquently mentioned as such in 91, 92 with Portland. There's no way in hell Drazen was prepared to do more for them at that early point than Ainge could and did. My team played them in 91, I watched them, Ainge was a key cog. Interestingly, so was Vlade.
Here are a few recaps of that series w/ various clips of younger Vlade, he did esepcially well at the end of Gm 1. There's also a seminal moment in the final secs of Gm 6 that shows Magic's tough love approach w/ him at that time ("dunk the MF!"). Duckworth hated Vlade, about half the time they ever played, it seemed like he would shove Vlade and get visibly irritated by his tricks.
Gm 1 -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9QxtUC-r98
Gm 4 -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYai8fMPY60
Gm 6 -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51FEZEm_BDw
I remember the day Drazen died. I was stunned to hear the news, I heard it during 3rd period English from someone who came in late. The news hadn't yet made it to the morning paper. Then Reggie Lewis died a month later, I heard about it on my birthday right after I woke up. My mom ask me if I knew a player named Lewis. I knew he was dead when she asked me that because he had collapsed during a playoff gm w/ Charlotte back in April.
