Lakers’ Sasha Vujacic is a game-changer, for the wrong reason
Reporting from Phoenix -- Sasha Vujacic was demonstrating his … well, interaction with the Suns’ Goran Dragic and clipped the tape recorder of a reporter in the Lakers’ dressing room.
The tape recorder, unlike Dragic, did not fall to the floor.
Vujacic was called for a flagrant foul, type one, when he elbowed Dragic early in the fourth quarter, and the incident ignited the Suns and Dragic, and they went on a big run to put the game in question.
Only a marvelous fourth quarter by Kobe Bryant prevented this series from going back to Los Angeles for Game 7, with the Lakers winning, 111-103, on Saturday night. It also kept Vujacic’s health and welfare intact, as Bryant said afterward on TV: “I was going to kill him.”
“It was very dumb for my part, and I wanted to apologize to my teammates because they did catch the momentum. Thank God we won. Thank God we won,” Vujacic said.
Still, he disputed the call, saying it all came out of nowhere and he didn’t realize how close Dragic was to him, throwing up his arms to carve out his territory.
“First of all, I don’t think it was a flagrant foul,” he said. “Second of all, when you [Dragic] are a low human being you can say things some people said… If I wanted to, I would have done it much harder than I did. I don’t do stupid things like that, to be honest.”
The Slovenian rivalry between the two reserve guards turned into one of the many interesting subplots of the Western Conference finals.
Vujacic, to be sure, felt unsettled when the Suns went on their big runs of 12-2 and 16-4 to cut the Lakers’ lead to five points with 5:35 remaining.
“I really got sick to my stomach,” he said. “It was a play I never would have done in a lifetime. It just came out of nowhere…. Probably one of the dumbest things I’ve done in my career, if you want to call it like that.”
Winning, most importantly, may have spared him the wrath of Kobe.
“He’s still breathing,” Bryant said, smiling, of Vujacic.
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