Divac Reportedly Gets Deferment for 3 Years

The case of Vlade Divac, National Basketball Assn. center in waiting, took another turn Thursday, this one favorable for the Lakers.

The Associated Press, quoting sources in Yugoslavia, said Divac has been given a three-year deferment for military service that will allow him to play for the Lakers this season. Instead of boot camp at Trebinje, Yugoslavia, in September, he will be at Laker camp in Honolulu in October.

Such may have been regarded as news in his native land, but not in Inglewood. The Lakers hardly considered it stunning.

“We have no idea if he was just granted a deferment or not,” General Manager Jerry West said. “We know we were told he had one before we even signed him.”

Every able-bodied male in Yugoslavia is obligated by law to serve one year in the military between ages 18 and 27. Although the majority are called immediately after high school, many top athletes are allowed to join toward the end of the period.

The confusion regarding Divac, 21, began when a newspaper report in Yugoslavia said the deferment was rescinded and that he had to report to barracks by Sept. 19 or face a three-year jail term for desertion. Most parties in the United States dismissed it as a misunderstanding.

“We never really took any of that stuff seriously,” said Marc Fleisher, Divac’s agent. “We’d gone through a lot of effort and worked through the proper channels to get it all done prior to him leaving Yugoslavia.”

Actually, there was probably bigger news this week for Divac. He passed his driver’s test Wednesday and is now looking to buy a car, meaning that, already, he understands the ways of Los Angeles quite well.

Dave Twardzik, a former pro player who spent the last three years as an assistant coach with the Indiana Pacers, has accepted a position with the Clippers to become Don Casey’s No. 1 aide.

Currently the Clippers’ only assistant coach, Twardzik, 38, spent eight years in professional basketball, four with the Virginia Squires of the American Basketball Assn. and four with Portland, where he helped the Trail Blazers win the 1977 NBA championship.

The Clippers also announced that Alan Rothenberg, citing time constraints, has stepped down as team president to return to his former role as general counsel.

A senior partner at the law firm of Manatt, Phelps, Rothenberg & Phillips, he has planned the move since being elected president of the State Bar of California in June. As general counsel, a position he held for one year before becoming Clipper president in 1988, he replaces Arn Tellem, who resigned in January to become a full-time player agent.

No replacement will be named. Rothenberg’s previous duties will be absorbed by Elgin Baylor, general manager; Andy Roeser, executive vice president for business operations, and Bob Steele, chief executive officer of the parent company, Sterling Corporation.