Sasha Vujacic on Luka Doncic: ‘He might be the only one that reminds me of a little bit more than anybody else of Kobe’

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. -via YouTube / April 9, 2025

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?’” -via YouTube / April 9, 2025

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. -via BasketNews / February 3, 2025

Jovan Buha: Lakers’ injury report for tomorrow in Portland: — Luka Doncic, LeBron James, Austin Reaves, Rui Hachimura and Dorian Finney-Smith are all out. — Jaxson Hayes, Jarred Vanderbilt and Gabe Vincent are questionable. -via Twitter @jovanbuha / April 12, 2025

Kayla Grey: AJ Lawson told me that Luka Doncic was one of the first people to text him congratulations today. Says that speaks volumes about his character: “ Everybody just seen Luka on the court and see how great he is. But he also a good guy off the court too, showed a lot of love to the city, always took care of us — I really appreciate him on that.” -via Twitter / April 11, 2025

During the 104 minutes with Luka Doncic, LeBron James, Austin Reaves, Rui Hachimura and Dorian Finney-Smith on the court, the Lakers have outscored opponents by 21.8 points per 100 possessions. The group’s played 104 minutes together — and the net rating is seventh best in the NBA among lineups with at least 100 minutes of court time. Having only shared the court in 12 games means there’s also time to for that group’s on-court chemistry to grow. -via Los Angeles Times / April 11, 2025