Vlade Divac's Unique Poker Wins: Favors Over Cash

Vlade Divac, a former NBA star who played for the Los Angeles Lakers, Charlotte Hornets, and Sacramento Kings, had a unique approach to poker wins with his teammates. Instead of taking money, he would exchange favors for winnings after dominating his teammates at the tables. Divac mentioned that he and his teammates would play cards on long flights to pass the time.

Divac’s principle was never to take money from his teammates. He would find ways for them to do favors in exchange for their losses, ensuring that everyone remained even. This approach helped build camaraderie with his teammates. Divac went on to score 13,398 points, 9,326 rebounds, and 1,631 blocks in his NBA career.

Michael Jordan was well-known for his poker sessions. In 2024, former New York Knicks player and ESPN commentator Mark Jackson spoke about a marathon game he played with the Bulls legend. Phil Hellmuth, a 17-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner, detailed his missed opportunity to play against Jordan. On the NESN Chicken Dinner Podcast, Hellmuth described meeting the six-time NBA champion and five-time league MVP several times, one of which included a poker challenge. Hellmuth had to decline the offer on that occasion. “He challenged me once and I didn’t have a lot of money in town,” Hellmuth said. “I was stupid. I should have just called my friends and said, ‘Hey, (send me some money).’ And (Jordan) would have wanted to play until seven in the morning.” Seven-time WSOP bracelet winner Josh Arieh got a chance to play Jordan in 2021, but he didn’t enjoy the experience. “I grew up with Jordan being the end-all, the GOAT,” he told Card Player’s Poker Stories podcast. “A friend of mine called me and asked if I wanted to play golf with Jordan with some poker afterwards … and it was a miserable experience. There were probably 15 carts of people following us around. He was just this big, over-the-top alpha male. “But then we played poker, and that was more my element, so I thought it was going to be different. But it wasn’t. The stupid jokes just kept on coming. Every time he said anything, even if it wasn’t remotely funny, the whole place would erupt into laughter. I didn’t enjoy it a bit.”