{"id":289106,"date":"2026-04-28T03:01:06","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T03:01:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/289106\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T03:01:06","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T03:01:06","slug":"vlade-divac-admits-he-should-have-drafted-luka-doncic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/289106\/","title":{"rendered":"Vlade Divac admits he should have drafted Luka Doncic"},"content":{"rendered":"

Vlade Divac can finally admit it.<\/p>\n

He should have drafted Luka Doncic.<\/p>\n

Divac is remembered as one of the most beloved players in franchise history after helping the Sacramento Kings reach their greatest heights under former coach Rick Adelman, but he made a colossal mistake while serving as the team\u2019s general manager from 2015-20.<\/p>\n

Divac chose Marvin Bagley III over Luka Doncic with the No. 2 pick in the 2018 NBA draft. Divac thought Bagley would be a better fit for the Kings a year after Sacramento selected De\u2019Aaron Fox with the fifth pick in the 2017 draft, but that has proven to be a poor decision.<\/p>\n

Doncic is a two-time NBA scoring champion, a five-time All-NBA First Team selection, a six-time All-Star and a perennial MVP candidate. He has averaged 29.2 points, 8.5 rebounds and 8.2 assists over eight seasons with the Dallas Mavericks and Los Angeles Lakers.<\/p>\n

Bagley has averaged 11.8 points and 6.5 rebounds over eight seasons with the Kings, Detroit Pistons, Washington Wizards, Memphis Grizzlies and Dallas Mavericks.<\/p>\n

Divac was asked about his decision to draft Bagley instead of Doncic on Monday\u2019s episode of \u201cByron Scott\u2019s Fast Break\u201d podcast.<\/p>\n

\u201cActually, I went to Madrid to talk to Luka a year before the draft, so he was definitely top on the list, but obviously it looks like I made mistake,\u201d Divac said. \u201cLuka is an unbelievable talent and definitely … one of the top players in the league. My thinking was, because all my assistants told me he can play small forward, and I said no, Luka is a point guard. Luka is a coach on the floor.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt like, if I get Luka, I have to trade Fox, and I already got relationship with Fox and I see he can do it. Small-market team, it\u2019s a perfect fit for him. Luka is a big-market player, and I felt like if I get Luka, down the road, I may lose him, so it\u2019s tough decision. It\u2019s really tough decision. If I go back, probably I would draft him, but now he\u2019s having a great career.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related Stories from Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Jason Anderson<\/a><\/p>\n

The Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n

Jason Anderson is The Sacramento Bee\u2019s Kings beat writer. He is a Sacramento native and a graduate of Fresno State, where he studied journalism and college basketball under the late Jerry Tarkanian.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Vlade Divac can finally admit it. He should have drafted Luka Doncic. Divac is remembered as one of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":289107,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[121,123,122],"class_list":["post-289106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289106\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/289107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}