Hooped Up

Based on this picture from TMZ, Sasha Vujacic and Maria Sharapova are either dating or they enjoy pedestrian safety when crossing the street. Of course this picture shakes up the Lakers WAG rankings officially, but Vanessa Bryant need not worry about her Thriller like strangle hold on top of the Lakers WAG charts.

U2 is a political rock n’ roll band that brings together all kinds of people like political leaders, free spirits, music junkies and now basketball reserves and tennis stars.  According to the LA Times and SportsbyBrooks, Lakers reserve Sasha Vujacic and tennis star Maria Sharapova might be dating after the two were seen cuddling at a recent U2 concert. Of course this doesn’t affect the Lakers current WAG rankings yet, led by Vanessa Bryant.

But if this relationship flies, Mrs. Bryant will have some good looking competition.

Lakers backup guard Sasha Vujacic missed two exhibition games this week with the Slovenian national team because of a left knee injury, according to a post on Vujacic’s website.

That post described the injury as “minor” and added an update that he’s returned to practice. ”They said it’s nothing serious, but the management didn’t want to risk aggravating it,” the article on Vujacic’s website stated.

Lakers spokesman John Black said he placed calls with Lakers General Manager Mitch Kupchak and team trainer Gary Vitti, and that “none of us know anything about it.” Black said the team hasn’t gotten a response from Vujacic’s representatives. But he wasn’t too concerned.

“If there’s any kind of injury,” Black said, “we’re under the assumption that it’s very minor.”

LA Times

One thing I’ve noticed over the past few years about International players entering the NBA these days is that they have way better nicknames then the guys that paved the way for them to make it to the league. Before every international sensation was dubbed “The left handed something”, “The right handed something”, “The European something” or some other uninspired nickname that translated into English horribly.

Now the International dudes have cool nicknames like Spanish Fly, AK-47, Captain Canada, The Polish Hammer, The Machine and a bunch of other cool sounding stuff . In this video of the Top 10 plays of the year by guys with US Work Visas.

The all show how they earned their names with some international flare.

Enjoy from your respective time zone.

Hot damn! I really have no idea why Sasha Vujucic has the nickname “The Machine”, but if he gets a few more dunks like this. I’ll begin to understand. I really had no idea that shaggy Sasha had this level of serve-age in him and Francisco Garcia And Cedric Simmons definitely had no clue.

What a nasty shaggy dunk!

This year I’ve decided to go bracket-less, but the LA Lakers are all about the March Madness and Melanie Collins got the scoop on who Kobe Bryant, Sasha Vujucic, Pau Gasol, Phil Jackson,  and Lamar Odom picked to win it all.

I’m still watching the tournament, but I’m pretty impartial as to who I want to win at this point. Just as long as Duke doesn’t win – I’ll be happy. Cause boy, I really hate me some Duke.

Earlier today, karma paid a visit to Lakers center Andrew Bynum as what seemed like an ordinary play could have turned into losing Bynum for the season…again. Just about 7 minutes into the 1 quarter of the Lakers versus Grizzlies match, Kobe Bryant drove to the hoop for a layup, lost his footing on his landing and fell directly into Andrew Bynums right leg really hard.

After Bynum hit the deck you could hear him screaming in pain ala Gerald Wallace  Read More »

Lakers’ Sasha Vujacic also has been contacted by several European clubs, according to a Slovenian newspaper. (Probably a good move for him considering no NBA clubs have expressed interest in signing the restricted free agent). Kobe Bryant said he wouldn’t be surprised if Vujacic takes the money and runs to Europe (if the rumors are true) considering the Lakers aren’t offering him more than a qualifying one-year deal worth $2.6 million. 

Orange County Register

Lakers guard Sasha Vujacic, things the Celtics are getting away with playing too rough.

“They (Boston) foul a lot. They get away with a lot of fouls,” Vujacic said. “When we go back to Boston, we know that they are going do a lot of moving picks like they do, and they’re probably going to get away with it. But we got to stay smart, stay focused, and play with poise.”

The Los Angeles Daily News

Welcome to the playoffs Sasha.

Well the chance of a sweep is gone as the Lakers won game three in the Staples Center on Tuesday 81 -87. It wasn’t as much that the Lakers won the game as the Celtics gave them the game. Kobe Bryant scored an efficient 36 points and had Ray Allen looking like he was on skates all night.  Sasha Vujucic was on fire all night for a playoff high of 20 points.

The Celtics for the most part with the exception of Ray Allen offensively two thirds of the big three could not hit anything. Kevin Garnett was 6-21 from the field for 13 points, and Paul Pierce was 2-14 from the field for 6 points.

Despite this woeful shooting the Celtics remained close right to the end, and still had a chance to win as the fourth quarter came to  the final whistle.

If the Celtics forget to show up tonight look for the series to be knotted at two a piece tonight.