Once Brothers is a 2010 sports documentary film written and directed by Michael Tolajian. It was co-produced by ESPN and NBA Entertainment for ESPN's 30 for 30 series.
The film chronicles the relationship of two basketball players from SFR Yugoslavia—Vlade Divac (Serbia) and Dražen Petrović (Croatia). The duo played together on the Yugoslavia national basketball team from 1986 to 1990 and were at one time close friends, but the Yugoslav Wars drove them apart emotionally, as they came from opposing sides. Petrović died in an automobile accident in 1993 before the two could reconcile; much of film focuses on Divac's regret that they were never able to resolve their differences.
Participants in the film include: Toni Kukoč, Dino Rađa, Žarko Paspalj, Clyde Drexler, Danny Ainge, Rick Adelman, Kenny Anderson, Derrick Coleman, Bill Fitch, Larry Bird, Jan Hubbard, Magic Johnson, Jerry West, Aleksandar Petrović, Biserka Petrović, etc.
Contents
Release
The film's first public showing took place on 10 October 2010 at the Hamptons International Film Festival. Two days later on 12 October it had its television premiere on ESPN.
Following a theater run in the country, the film aired on Radio Television of Serbia's RTS1 in prime time on Thursday, 26 May 2011.
Reaction and critical reception
United States
Dan Devine of the Ball Don't Lie sports blog feels Once Brothers "is exactly the kind of presentation 30 for 30 was meant to produce—an enthralling recounting of a forgotten or underappreciated story about how sports and capital-letters Real Life interact" and sees its biggest asset, among many of them, to be "the honesty of Divac, Kukoč, and Rađa in discussing the emotional toll that the war took on them".
Michael Tully of hammertonail.com sees the film as "being about many different things at once—a history lesson, a touching interpersonal drama, and a positive reaffirmation that the American Dream still exists and isn't a completely silly construct" and labels it "a very strong work, in which the grand scope of the Yugoslav Wars of the early 1990s is personalized through the relationship—and unfortunate falling out—between former NBA stars Vlade Divac and Dražen Petrović".
Though mentioning the movie was "probably too long", objecting in particular to some of the childhood material about Vlade and Dražen as well as to lesser extent to some of Vlade's travelogue before he gets to Croatia being included in the film, Alan Sepinwall of HitFix still thinks it "did a nice job of telling the sad story of how politics tore apart that great Yugoslavian team, and the friendship between Divac and Petrovic".
Writing for the Slant Magazine blog, Jason Bellamy summarizes Once Brothers as an intimate tale that paints a vast panorama, but sees its long intro as necessary because "a good number of average [American] sports fans might not even remember Divac and Petrovic, and even many legitimate NBA fans are unlikely to know much about that duo's European careers, not to mention the outline of the war in the former Yugoslavia". He concludes by opining that "though not the absolute best film in the 30 for 30 series, Once Brothers might be the film that best encapsulates the kind of personal, outside-the-mainstream storytelling that characterizes the series as a whole".
David Cassilo on the SLAM Magazine blog described the film as mainly being Divac's story about dealing with the division that comes between him (a Serb) and all of the Croats that were once his teammates on the Yugoslavian national team, praising it as a must-see for any NBA fan because "within the main story is the story of how an international player adjusts to the NBA. Divac and his former Yugoslavian teammates express all of the obstacles that are in the way for a foreign-born player, including style of play, language and the lack of belief by others that they could actually cut it in the NBA".
Croatia
Croatian media generally complained over the omission of Stojko Vranković, a close friend of Petrović's, who, unlike Divac, was in constant contact with him throughout 1991–1993. It also pointed out several factual inaccuracies in the film such as the claim that this was Divac's first time visiting Zagreb and Croatia since the war when in fact he had already been there in September 2008 at which time he visited the Dražen Petrović Museum.
The reaction to the film from those in Croatia with personal ties to the topic was mixed.
Vranković, who suited up for Yugoslavia in four major competitions (all four with both Divac and Petrović as teammates) and whose two seasons in the NBA overlapped with both players' time in the league, did not watch the movie. However, after having it summarized for him by Croatian journalists, he mentioned several details from the 1991–1992 period, which he claims ultimately led to Petrović severing his friendship with Divac. Vranković specifically talked about having Divac and his wife Snežana over to his house in Boston in October 1991 (during NBA preseason when Divac's Los Angeles Lakers came to play his Boston Celtics) where they discussed Divac's flag incident from Argentina long into the night. Divac then left for Paris with the Lakers to play at the McDonald's Open where he was reportedly asked by Spanish newspaper As about the Yugoslav national team's appearance at the upcoming 1992 Olympics in light of Vranković's and Petrović's statements that they want to play for Croatia. According to Vranković, Divac's response included a feeling the Yugoslav team will stay together and a surprise at Vranković's and Petrović's statements about wanting to play for Croatia since that country doesn't even exist, all of which, Vranković says, he and Petrović didn't appreciate when they saw it. Still, Vranković claims that the ultimate falling out between Petrović and Divac happened on 4 March 1992, when the New Jersey Nets came to play the Lakers at The Forum in Los Angeles: "Dražen later told me about taking issue with something Divac did in that game. Following a matchup versus Divac, Dražen fell on the floor expecting a foul and Divac stepped on him. That was the end in Dražen's eyes".
Zdravko Radulović, who had participated in two major competitions with the Yugoslav national team, 1988 Olympics in Seoul and EuroBasket 1989 in Zagreb, with Divac and Petrović on the roster both times, revealed to have watched the film multiple times, adding: "It was a good documentary. I know Divac and I think he was very earnest about the things he said in the movie. While we were on the national team, their [Divac's and Dražen's] relationship wasn't all that close. To all of us on those national team rosters, Dražen—who was a bit older and had already been playing abroad in Real Madrid—was an idol. I believe the two of them became close friends once they both went to the NBA at the same time in 1989 because being together made coping with life in the new world easier".