my brush with celebrity, Vlade Divac

Years ago, when I was in college, I was at the airport waiting to board a Southwest Airlines flight. People getting off the same plane were leaving, walking past, and I saw this man approaching who looked so familiar. “We know that guy!” my brain was saying to me, “who is that? I’m sure we know him.” I totally thought for a half a minute that it was someone I knew – in that way that you know someone and they know you too. He walked right past me, close enough to touch, and my brain was telling me that I knew him and trying to place who it was, and he was really, really tall. That’s when it hit me. “That’s Vlade Divac!!” my brain screamed silently. “Oh my god!” (Because it was back in the day before everyone said OMG.)

such a friendly, familiar face

I was so excited. I was a big fan of the Sacramento Kings, which was the team he was on at the time. I didn’t do anything or say anything or call him out in the airport. He never even looked at me, because his eye level is several feet above the top of my head. (According to Wikipedia he is 7 ft 1 in.) But I saw him. I boarded the plane he had just gotten off of. I always wondered why he was on that flight, too (with all the commoners). He couldn’t possibly have had enough leg room.

So the other day, my husband was playing this NBA game he’d just bought for our PS3. (That’s a video game console, the Playstation 3, for all you old fogeys.) And he mentioned that Vlade Divac was one of the players in the game. (Because he knows I’m a fan and my story about the airport.)

“Vlade, my man! Vlade Divac! Yeah!” I exclaimed.

And then in a quiet voice, I added with a smile, “Me and Vlade go way back.”