The Los Angeles Lakers prank archive usually starts and ends with Shaquille O’Neal. But the most elaborate prank in their history included a different player. The mid-2000s Lakers locker room thrived on intensity. But former Lakers staffer Jay Wagers unearthed an infamous DVD of one of the most elaborate rookie hazing pranks in NBA history. The chief mastermind was the surprise evil genius of Vlade Divac. The victim, Tony Bobbitt. The linchpin, Lucy Liu. But the plot twist was Kobe Bryant.

Appearing on Byron Scott’s Fast Break, the former Lakers center detailed how a rookie’s refusal to perform standard team duties sparked a weeks-long psychological ruse involving a Hollywood A-lister. “It started, you know, from nowhere,” Divac explained, recalling how equipment manager Rudy Garciduenas complained that rookies Sasha Vujacic and Tony Bobbitt were fleeing practice early to avoid cleanup duties during the 2004-05 season.

After Bobbitt ignored a second warning, Divac plotted calculated retribution. His exact words to Bobbitt: “The third time is not going to happen. I’ll make sure you’re going to remember the rest of your life if you don’t do this, right?” Well, the rook didn’t heed the second warning either.

The opportunity arose during a nationally televised game when Bobbitt, desperate for camera time, manipulated his way into a front-row seat next to the bench—directly across from Lucy Liu in the star-studded Lakers courtside. Divac exploited the rookie’s infatuation. With the help of an acquaintance, he forged a note that read: “Hi, Tony. This is Lucy Liu. Give me a call,” complete with Divac’s own phone number. Bobbitt took the bait immediately.

What followed was weeks of him leaving passionate voicemails and texts on a phone Divac had intentionally routed to a female accomplice to maintain the act.

The prank expanded into a full-blown team conspiracy. “Players, coaches—even I got involved with John Black [Lakers PR handler],” Divac revealed, adding that Black went as far as creating a fake People magazine cover detailing an “LA Romance” that caused Bobbitt to completely lose his mind.

Veteran teammate, Lamar Odom initially didn’t like the hazing and begged Divac to stop. His passionate speech, “Vlade, I can’t take it anymore. Like, you know, this is ridiculous. You know, it’s going too far,” almost made Vlade call off the whole operation. However, after Bobbitt unironically boasted to the locker room that Liu had kissed him, Odom changed his tune to, “Vlade, keep going.”

What happened next cemented the prank’s legendary status. The elaborate operation eventually culminated in a sting-style reveal that remains a legendary piece of team lore.

Lakers prank archives: Vlade Divac and Kobe Bryant school rookie

Byron Scott usually collects Shaq prank stories on his podcast. This time Jay Wagers and Vlade Divac gave him a play-by-play on the Serbian star’s legendary prank.

To pull off the finale, Divac texted Bobbitt as “Lucy,” claiming she was back from filming in San Francisco and sending a limousine to pick him up for dinner. Divac rigged the limo and the restaurant with hidden cameras. A stroke of genius, as he had footage of a paranoid with celebrity fever, Bobbitt asking the driver to check the perimeter for paparazzi. Bobbitt wished it was paps. Instead, the entire Lakers roster, complete with wives and children, was waiting for him next door. They invaded Bobbitt’s table, where the rookie mistakenly believed he’d been stood up.

Old footage from the DVD was revealed through the 2026 retelling, time-stamped April 7, 2005, at 5:30 AM (likely a camera configuration error during the evening dinner). It shows Kobe Bryant ruthlessly grilling the rookie. “Where’s Lucy at, man? She coming? She late? What happened? Call Lucy, man… She got you waiting here too long,” Bryant mocked him on tape before taking a sip of Bobbitt’s special champagne he pre-ordered and put on ice for his date.

Kobe urged him to call Liu right then. As the pattern goes, Bobbitt took the bait again, dialed the number, only to watch Divac’s pocket ring right across the table. Divac answered using the exact phrase from practice: “Tony, do you remember when I told you? Are you going to remember?”

Now that Bobbitt has finally realized he was set up, he almost dislocated his neck nodding.

This specific 2004–2005 squad was a bizarre, transitional era for the franchise, where they missed the playoffs for the first time in 11 years and finished 4th in the Pacific Division. Shaquille O’Neal had already been traded to the Miami Heat in the summer of 2004, and they had a new prankster big in Divac (who was originally traded away in ’96 to make room for Shaq and Kobe). Divac was already famous for his pager prank where Magic Johnson smashed Divac’s pager, which went off during a team speech.

Liu confirmed the squad still featured an eccentric mix of personalities under coach Rudy Tomjanovich. Divac had returned to Los Angeles for his final NBA season, while Bobbitt and Vujacic were trying to find their footing as rookies.

The prank was so thoroughly documented that Divac compiled the limo footage, restaurant tapes, and voicemails onto a custom DVD. He convinced Coach Tomjanovich to play it during an official pre-game film session, forcing the rookie to relive his heartbreak in front of the entire organization. He even gave out copies, which Wager confirmed he still has.

Vlade never says if Bobbitt took cleanup seriously after that, but the veterans did turn him into a shining example of professionalism as outstanding as his microwave scoring.