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Former NBA player Sasha Vujacic shared his thoughts on his fellow countryman, Luka Doncic, drawing comparisons to his former teammate, Kobe Bryant. Vujacic sees striking similarities between the two players, both in style and mentality. “We actually don’t know each other. We know of each other. We had different routes that took us to the NBA, uh, but I think when he first got to the league, I think Mark Stern or somebody called me, and they’re like, ‘What do you think about him?’ You know, he comes from the same country, and a couple of them called me, and I said, ‘I’ll be honest, I watch him play, and he might be the only one that reminds me of a little bit more than anybody else of Kobe’,” Vujacic said on Out The Mud Podcast.

EuroHoops.net

Sasha Vujačić: "With Kobe Bryant... with Kobe, it was that obsession with being the greatest. I think he achieved that because there was never enough. There was always that extra mile he wanted to take. That’s why everybody talks about ‘mamba mentality.’ Everybody can find that mamba mentality within themselves—it's the hero within you. But are you willing to do that? Not many will. Everybody wants to go, like, 'Okay, I’m going to do a little bit of extra work,' or they calculate it. But Kobe’s obsession—with studying the film, understanding the opponent, footwork, going deep into the system, into the triangle, trying to understand every single aspect of it—he’s not only outworking you on the court, he’s mentally outworking you. Just putting a smile here, looking at you weird, like, 'I smell blood right now.' He gets into your psyche. Once that happened, we knew we were golden. He was our leader. Somebody you either followed—or you fell behind, and you were gone.

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Sasha Vujačić: “So anyhow, Rudy (Tomjanovich) says, ‘He played for me before. You’re young. You’re coming from Europe. I think we’ll have a better chance with him.’ And I hadn’t even gotten to the locker room—I already called my agent. My agent at the time was also Kobe’s agent, Rob Pelinka. I was going crazy. They’re telling me, ‘Calm down. You might not be in his plan, but you're in the plan of the franchise.’ Then Kobe called me. Kobe calmed me down. I was like, ‘This is crazy.’ Funny fact—one of the teams I was supposed to go to was Boston. Danny Ainge and I had a great workout, and I was like, ‘Damn, do I just kill my dream?’”

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Later on, Giannis Antetokounmpo proposed a dream of his, talking about big European players in big market teams, even naming some examples: "Okay, let's say something funny because I took it and spoke about it very, very serious. Now that a European will be, I believe, the face of the Los Angeles Lakers, this is something new from Europe that never happened before," Giannis started. "We had Pau Gasol, obviously he was a great player. And Sasha Vujacic, great guy, one of my close friends, but I mess up his name all the time. Now, I just love it." "You know what I want? I want Luka to the Lakers, I want Nikola Jokic to the New York Knicks, I want all the Europeans to go to all the big markets to see something incredible," Giannis said.

BasketNews

How many titles do you think your good friend Luka Doncic will win by the time he retires? Goran Dragic: I really don’t know. That all depends on the front office, how they are gonna surround him with players. Last year they were really good. I think nobody expect them to play in the Finals. The chemistry with him and Kyrie [Irving] was really amazing, and everyone followed. I do think that signing Klay Thompson, they are going to have a lot more firepower, but at the end of the day, are they going to be able to play defense? So you never know, especially with now in the NBA, there’s a lot of good teams. You have OKC, they gonna be good, you got Minnesota, you got Phoenix, you can never doubt Lakers with LeBron, then you have Denver with Nikola Jokic, Dallas is here, then you got Boston, you got Miami, Milwaukee is a team that disappointed last year, but we’ll see. I believe that Luka will win MVP because he’s such a good player. He’s putting up crazy numbers, but it all depends on the front office, how they gonna surround him with a team. I think they have a chance, but we’ll see. I definitely wish him to win one because he’s a good friend of mine, and he’s coming from Slovenia, we have actually five guys who won it, Rasho Nesterovic, Sasha Vujacic, Beno Udrih, Vlatko Cancar, and I wish him to be the fifth one.

HoopsHype

"Phil, you're one of a kind," Gasol said. "You know that, we all know that. I love you. Thank you for encouraging your players to read. Thank you for introducing us to mindfulness. I love you to death." Jackson, Fisher, Sandiford-Artest and Vujacic also recorded video messages for Gasol that were shown on the video screen during a first-half timeout.

ESPN

Former shooting guard Sasha Vujacic never reached the superstar status of any of those players, but he was able to play in some of the biggest games and deliver in some of the highest pressure situations. Vujacic spoke with ClutchPoints in an exclusive interview about how international players are becoming more prominent in the NBA. “I think luckily the game became very global and players have developed,” Vujacic told ClutchPoints. “And for me, being European coming from Europe, I understand what the journey was to get here. And when these kids back in the day saw what Vlade [Divac], Drazen [Petrovic], [Arvydas] Sabonis, all the pioneers did — without naming everybody — and then what different generations did, they got excited and they understood that hard work will pay off.”

Clutch Points

“If you look at all three players, I love Giannis Antetokounmpo because of what Giannis did,” Sasha Vujacic continued. “He stayed in Milwaukee, he showed the loyalty, and he won a championship. Unfortunately, he couldn’t get the back-to-back, but I love his grind, I love his determination, I love what he stands for, and I believe he’s got a couple more championships.

Clutch Points

“You see Nikola Jokic MVP back-to-back, they have to make that extra pass to the Western Conference Finals, probably to the Finals because they deserve to feel what it means to be in the Finals. It’s a whole different ball game in the playoffs and then once you go stage by stage, it’s different. “And then there’s Luka Doncic who is an upcoming MVP, an incredible player. Just something that I haven’t seen in a long time. He’s got a great management, a great coach around him, players, so hopefully he’ll be surrounded by a lot of weapons because he would deserve to win it more than I can explain. I really wish him to get to that point.”

Clutch Points

The future of the NBA remains bright, especially with the amount of international talents coming in. “Was I fortunate?” Vujacic asked regarding his perfect situation with the Lakers. “I don’t know. The basketball gods are always watching and they were watching how crazy I was about basketball, the little kid that was also sleeping with basketball shoes and playing basketball as breathing.”

Clutch Points

Clutch Points: Sasha Vujacic signing gear for Lakers fans. LA still got love for The Machine 🔥 pic.twitter.com/n1I80nQmNV

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With a passion for wine, dating to his Slovenian upbringing, former LA Laker and basketball legend Aleksander "Sasha" Vujacic now runs his latest endeavor — S&G Estate's Aleksander Wines and vineyard in Paso Robles — a family biz with a focus on crafting the perfectly balanced Bordeaux blend.

patch.com

Mark Medina: Sasha Vujacic, former Lakers longtime trainer Gary Vitti, Dwight Howard, JaVale McGee, Gary Payton and Michael Phelps are also here

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Arash Markazi: Lakers fan favorite @Sasha Vujacic is working out daily with an eye towards an NBA comeback this season. In the meantime he recently became a U.S. citizen and is producing an award-winning wine. “I’m proud to be a Laker and I’m proud to be an American.”

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