Good Riddance Indeed

It’s official. The Sasha Vujacic Era is over. As most of you know, I’m a Laker fan and have been ever since I realized that every fatherless boy needs heroes. Despite being a hardcore Laker fan, I can tell you with every fiber in my being that I hated Sasha Vujacic. Hated. I don’t like to throw the word “hate” around very often because I believe it to be a strong word, which shouldn’t be used loosely. Here is my running list of things I hate (in no particular order):

Traffic
Slow internet
Busy work (i.e., education classes, any reason to go to the DMV, etc.)
Every form of evil
Sasha Vujacic

You could see that the list isn’t very long. I don’t even have any ex-girlfriends on the list. For right now lets focus on the Sasha Era. The 27th pick in the 2004 draft from Yugoslavia came into the league with potential. He didn’t play much his rookie year but worked his way into the rotation his 2nd year, being a scrappy defender and decent long-range shooter.

As time passed, Sasha never seemed like he was learning the game of basketball or displayed any type of common sense. He would D-up his player 90 feet from the basket as though he was trying out for Compton Dominguez High School never realizing, “Hey this is the NBA and every starting PG for every team could beat me easily 90 feet away from the basket so maybe I should back up.” If they kept a stat of fouls 90 feet from the basket, I know that Sasha would be the all-time leader in a landslide. Moreover, when Sasha would complain about foul calls he looked exactly like a third-grade girl who was just given a Time-Out (This year’s soccer-girl hair do didn’t help shake that image). It’s as if he never learned the rules of basketball.

I remember taking my buddy Tyson to a Lakers vs. Kings game when M. Bibby was still playing for the Kings. It was a tight game until the 4th quarter when they put Sasha in to guard Bibby. Bibby is a vet who knows all the tricks. Sasha played defense 90 feet from the basket and you wouldn’t believe what happened next . . . wait for it . . . he fouled Bibby. That’s not even the worst part, he kept fouling Bibby in the backcourt, got us in the penalty, and Bibby nailed the game shut with free throws. Everybody in the crowd was in disbelief that a professional basketball player kept making the same mistake over and over and over again never realizing that maybe, just maybe, he should try something different. I could tell you countless stories like this but I think you get the picture. Here's a great article by Kevin Ding from OC Register.

In 2008 (Sasha’s contract year) he played had his best season: Games played 72, FG% 45, 3P% 43, FT% 83, PPG 9 while playing about 18 mpg. Not bad. During the summer, while negotiating a new contract, Sasha complained about not getting enough money and years and even threatened to play in Europe if he didn’t get the contract he wanted. Remember that this was the summer after Sasha gave Ray Allen a lay-up in Game 4 of the Finals that killed our chances of winning the title that year. When asked during the post-game why he didn’t foul, he replied, “I was scared.” After the Lakers gave him 3yrs for about $15M, his game just went into the toilet (I wish someone gave me $15M to be scared to do my job). I can't stand players who after they get a contract their game goes into the toilet.

Here are his numbers the following two years:

2008-2009: Games played 80, FG% 38, 3P% 36, FT% 92, PPG 6 while playing about the same amount of minutes in 2008 (He didn’t score a point in the 2009 Finals).

2009-2010: Games played 67, FG% 40, 3P% 30, FT% 84, PPG 3 while playing 8mpg.

Yes, I will say that Sasha hit the biggest free throws in Laker history in Game 7 of the 2010 Finals. But considering that he complained loudly about his contract, lost count of how many games he cost us, and had an un-teachable attitude, that’s the least he could’ve done.

I’m currently starting a poll at work with how long it takes for Maria Sharapova to call off the engagement. The current over/under is three months. Once the trade was reported I got some text messages and Facebook postings saying, “Good riddance” and “Finally, we got rid of him.” These were from fellow Laker fans as well (The deal saves the Lakers about $9M).

I do have to admit, Sasha did make attending Laker games a lot more fun because I would always start a “We-hate-Sas-ha” chant with the boys in section 303. Every time he checked into the game we would boo him. But since he hardly played anymore I had to give all my boos during the pre-game warms up when Sasha would pop-up on the Jumbo-Tron. That’s the part of Sasha I’m going to miss the most. No matter who we were playing we always had a villain, even though it was in-house.

So let me be one of the millions of Laker fans who say, “So long” into oblivion. Pencil me in for the Jan 14 game vs. the Nets. I can’t miss an opportunity to boo Sasha one last time because he’ll be playing in Turkey next year (and no longer engaged to Maria Sharapova).

And I'll leave you with one of my favorite Sasha moments, which almost cost us game 6 of the 2010 Western Conference Finals: