http://www.pe.com/sports/lakers/stories/PE_Sports_Local_divac_20.f571.html Vlade's back Divac, who played the past six seasons at Sacramento, will sign a two-year contract for $4.9 million a season with the Lakers 01:13 AM PDT on Tuesday, July 20, 2004 By BRODERICK TURNER / The Press-Enterprise You can go home again. Just ask Vlade Divac. Divac is coming back to the Lakers, to the team he first he called home after they used the 26th pick in the first round of the 1989 draft to pluck him out of Yugoslavia. He will be introduced today at a news conference after he signs his mid- level exeception contract for $4.9 million a year. It's a two-year deal, with Divac holding the option for the second season. Divac, an unrestricted free agent center who played last season in Sacramento, will be asked to fill the large hole left by center Shaquille O'Neal, one of the principals involved in the deal that sent Divac packing in the first place. "It was not that hard to decide between the Clippers and the Lakers," Divac, who considered the Clippers as an option, told the Sacramento Bee on Monday. "The people there are familiar to me. I know (Lakers owner) Dr. (Jerry) Buss and he knows me. He's a big reason why I chose to go to the Lakers. I told him what I was looking for and they said, 'OK.'" Divac spent his first seven seasons with the Lakers. He was the lovable rookie that was a part of the 1990 Lakers team Magic Johnson led to the NBA Finals. Though the Lakers went to the playoffs in six of the seven seasons Divac played here, then-Lakers general manager Jerry West decided a change was needed and Divac was at the center of it. Divac didn't want to leave his new home. West wanted to sign O'Neal, a free agent with Orlando whom many considered the best big man in the game. But to get it done, West had to make a bold move without knowing if O'Neal even would sign with the Lakers. So West traded Divac to the Charlotte Hornets for the rights to a high school kid by the name of Kobe Bryant. Soon after, O'Neal signed a contract with the Lakers. Now O'Neal is gone and Divac is replacing the man who replaced him. And the kid Divac was traded for, Bryant, is Divac's new teammate. O'Neal was traded to the Miami Heat for Lamar Odom, Brian Grant, Caron Butler and a future first-round draft pick. Divac, 36, wanted to return to the Lakers and the Lakers wanted him. Having Divac allows the Lakers to get bigger and to move Grant to power forward and Odom to small forward. "It was very big for us to get Vlade," new Lakers coach Rudy Tomjanovich said. "I believe all the guys are excited about playing with him. He's been a winner." Divac played in Charlotte for two seasons. He spent the past six seasons with the Kings, a team that became rivals with the Lakers. But the Kings offered just $2.5 million to Divac, so he left. "I still can't believe I'm leaving Sacramento," said Divac, who will fly down from Sacramento today, where he had been holding a basketball camp with Peja Stojakovic. It was in Sacramento where Divac began to make a name for himself. He became one of the best-passing big men in the game. The Lakers will ask Divac to play 20-25 minutes per game, and to be a leader for them. "There aren't too many players out there that are true centers, and Vlade is a true center," Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak said. " With a player like Vlade, you wouldn't ask him to carry the load. You'd hope to get some defensive help against some of the bigger centers in the league. He's a great passer. He's great in the locker room. He can make open shots. And just his savvy alone will help the team." Kings coach Rich Adelman made one last call to Divac to try to convince him to stay with the Kings. But Divac, who kept his Southern California house, wanted to return home. "I had been trying to convince myself that I should stay with Sacramento," Divac said. "But it's not just about me. It's a family thing. You try to tell yourself that money is not important. But really, money is important. I don't know what I'm going to do when I stop playing. I don't want to look back five or 10 years from now and say, 'Vlade, you were so stupid leaving that money there.'" Reach Broderick Turner at [email protected] --

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