In between my second and third trips to Belgrade, my Australian brate, Kris, met two bona fide Serbian celebrities: Dragana and Daliborka, girls he grew to know and love through a television screen, over the course of a entire month at the One Black Hole Hostel known as the Three Black Catz.

Partying in the V.I.P. room of Underground with two cast members from "Veliki Brat," the Serbian "Big Brother." Big freaking deal. I met Vlade Divac today.

eBay, please, for the love of God, sell me that jersey

Not that Vlade Divac.

This Vlade Divac.

Shorter than I imagined.

I love that they have the "he my cousin" phenomenon in Serbia, as well. Just like in America, wherever this is a professional athlete, there is a Redwood of a family tree in tow.

Let me guess who your cousin is.

This is Prijepolje, a small town in the southwestern pocket of Serbia, and where I spent this past Christmas day. It is the birthplace of both Vlade Divac's.

In such a small place, the gene pool is about as diverse as a Kappa Sig bid day rally at UVa. And so, naturally, there are a lot of families with the last name Divac.

And equally as natural, a lot of people will pull the Reggie Jackson-Gary Sheffield/Vince Carter-TMac "he my cousin" thing.

What shocked me in Prijepolje was that Vlade isn't even that beloved by his own people -- at least the ones who feel as if he has "abandoned" the city in which his roots lay. In the rest of Serbia, I have yet to meet a single person who dislikes Divac; in Prijepolje, I had a hard time meeting one who liked him.

But then I met today's Vlade, who immediately let me know who he was, once he spotted the football we were tossing at the Kalemegdan and began to talk with us about Tom Brady.

"I think that many people in Prijepolje do not like him because he, how do you say, success in America."

"So it's jealousy?"

"Yes, jealousy, that is what I think."

Who in America ever knew what it was exactly that Vlade was chunking up in the air as a celebration to every single 3?

Whatever it is, I can at least say that I know him.