Once Brothers

One of the greatest sports documentaries from the excellent series by ESPN 30 for 30. A deep and moving sink through the story of the golden Yugoslavian basketball generalion, the horror of war and ethnic conflicts, the sad impact it had in their lives puting old friends appart. The horror of the war in Balkans made lots of victims, but it is quite interesting to see how it happened with two FIBA (and then rising in NBA) stars, who were close friends, almost brothers, but whose bond was broken by an unfortunate flag incident, xenophonic hatred, exploitation media and nationalist Servian and Croatian political leaders. Vlade Divac and Drazen Petrovic pioneer path in NBA league and amazing Yugolavian national team' success were also very well shown and discussed. There are excellent interviews, testimonies and footage. It is a documentary on the history of basketball and on the relation between sports and politics that deffinitely worth seeing.

This is a movie that reveals the terrible aspects of civil war. Once "brothers" in the successful Yugoslavian national basket team, Divac (serbian) and Petrovich (croatian) became alienated as soon as the Balkan war started. The story starts with the great success of the Yugoslavian basket team who seemed to have no limits in how far they could take the game of basketball. They were one of the few teams in the world that could really challenge even the "dreamteam" of the United States. A flag incident after a successful game were blown totally out of proportions, and led to the end of a long and deep friendship, that tragically would never have the chance to recover, even after the war. Athletes are only common people that act spontaneously as they are used to. When their actions are used for political purposes the outcome sometimes can be horrific! This is a really good documentary, and also a historical tale for all basketball-lovers!