What do you want from me, the NBA is locked out and I’m tired of talking about people signing overseas contracts. We get it, everybody’s going. In addition to that, it’s not my fault that Vlade just decided to mention this a few days ago either.
When I was struck by this breaking news, I couldn’t help but picture what Divac’s reaction must have looked like while this prank was in motion. I can totally see Vlade cracking up in the back of the bus, laughing hysterically as he slapped Peja a bunch of fives. Gotta figure C-Webb and Bibby were probably across the aisle ROTFL as well, Adelman wearing some kinda baseball cap up front wondering what all the commotion was about back there, all the while Bobby Jackson is strolling into the hotel lobby wearing only his underwear. Just a bunch of hams those Kings were back in the day.
Abbreviations like ROTFL hadn’t been invented back then as of yet though, and neither had camera phones. If they were, a stunt like this would have been viral in about three minutes. Instead, the joke stayed between Vlade and his SacTown crew all the way up until he let it out of the proverbial bag just the other day.
This from the Sacramento Kings Official Tumblr page:
What is one of your favorite pranks you instigated?
“I had a lot of them but I’ll pick one you’ll really like – it’s about Bobby Jackson. He lost some (card games) on a plane and, obviously, we were so close that we didn’t want to take each others’ money. But I told him, ‘You don’t need to pay me, but you need to be in your underwear and check-in to the hotel in New York.’ So that happened. We were laughing and had a lot of fun — ask Bobby about that!” – Vlade Divac
I’m not sure I want to ask Bobby about that actually. Part of me would feel a little awkward starting out: So Bobby, tell me about that time you checked into a hotel in New York wearing your underwear because you lost boatloads of jack to Divac that you didn’t want to pay him? No, I’ll just take your word for it Vlad, you prankster you.
Photo: Sacramento Bee
