Kings VP of Basketball and Franchise Operations, and legendary center, Vlade Divac recently reflected on a time when the focus of American sports was not soccer, let alone a Women’s World Cup happening in the thick of the NBA Finals.
Divac would spend most of his locker room time trying to convince C-Webb, J-Will and the squad to tune-in to ESPN’s Champions League broadcasts. “The battle for the remote control in the trainer’s room was often heated,” wrote Stein. Divac rarely won this battle.
“Only Peja [Stojakovic] and Hedo [Turkoglu] were on my side,” said Serbia native. “The guys would say: ‘Soccer?’ Why would we want to watch that? There’s no stats.”
Nearly 20 years after the Los Angeles Galaxy’s first home game in Major League Soccer — a game Vlade Divac attended with a “lowly sportswriter since he couldn’t convince any of his teammates to join him” — he can finally share their love for soccer with fellow teammates and colleagues.
“Our time has come,” NBA legend Steve Nash told Stein, adding that in his early years in the league nobody would have thought soccer would become so popular in the US.
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Aside from a boom in foreign-born players coming into the NBA only one thing truly stands out: A video game.
“EA Sports’ FIFA franchise is ridiculously popular with the modern NBA player,” writes Stein. Likely more popular than other simulated sports games like Madden NFL or NBA 2K.
Indiana Pacers big man Luis Scola (Argentina) told ESPN that FIFA has changed the way many Americans see the game. “Guys play the game, so they know the names, and that got players into soccer a little bit more.”
Former Kings power forward Patrick Patterson, now with the Toronto Raptors, recently detailed his experience meeting his favorite soccer player, Yaya Toure of the Manchester City FC. “This is definitely one of the highlights of my life.”
It’s clear that soccer does not have the same stigma in the US that it did 20 years ago. It is now on the same level of consideration as “big-time” sports. “People in America have embraced it all. The World Cup. The star players. The cool uniforms,” said Nash.
Looks like Vlade may have finally won the battle for the TV remote.
Read Stein’s full story here.
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