This month’s SLAM Magazine report is featured in the “In your face” section and focuses on the seemingly ubiquitous Sasha Vujacic, whom really made a name for himself this season, and especially in the 2008 Playoffs.

In Your Face: Teacher’s Pest
He always knew. Always felt the gaze.

Or, worse, the disapproval. He knew he was being taught to handle the pressure. Prepared for something more. It didn’t matter. Everytime Sasha Vujacic did something wrong, he was coming out of the game. Turnover? Sit down. Missed shot? On the bench.

Phil Jackson was getting him ready for this, for a real job with the Lakers. Not some blowout-time cameo. Steady

work. Shooting. Defending. Annoying. “Of course I felt I was being tested,” says Vujacic, a fourth-year guard with the Lakers.

It didn’t really begin until last year. Vujacic sat much of his first year, quite a shock after he averaged nearly 30 minutes a night with Snaidero UD in the Italian League. The next year — Jackson’s first back with the Lakers — Vujacic was used as a point guard. Bad move. But in 06-07, the trouble really started.

“I thought I had to be really perfect to play with Phil,” says the 6-7 Slovenia native. “I finally realized he was trying to make more mature basketball-wise. So, I kept my focus, and it paid off.”

The 24-year-old Vujacic became a rotation regular for L.A. this year, averaging 8.8 ppg and shooting 43.7 percent from three-point range, both career bests. His consistency has earned Jackson’s trust, as his pain-in-the-ass defense. Vujacic is such a pest that he has been attacked by Melo, elbowed by Renaldo Balkman, and shouted at by Rafer Alston. His teammates even get tired of him at times. “If being aggressive irritates opponenents, so be it,” Vujacic says “Kobe does that to me in practice, so I am used to it.”

Fans should get comfortable with Vujacic’s growth, because the tireless worker — he’ll stay in the gym during the off-season until he makes 1000 jumpers — will keep getting better. The only question now is whether that improvement will continue in L.A. — as a restriced free-agent after the season, he could move on. Then again, “L.A.’s great,” he says.

Especially now that he has passed the test.

Source and links: Slam Magazine, issue 119 (August 2008), Slovenia Basketball Forum (IBN)