Brains
Playing for the Los Angeles Lakers is a dream that millions of young basketball players have. That became a reality for Serbian hooper Vladimir Radmanović.
Radmanović began his NBA career in 2001 after being drafted 12th overall by the Seattle Supersonics. He spent four years with Seattle before being traded to the Los Angeles Clippers for the 2005-06 season.
After a year with the Clippers, Radmanović became a free agent and signed a five-year, $30.2 million contract with the Lakers on July 13, 2006. There, he joined Kobe Bryant under head coach Phil Jackson in one of the NBA’s most high-profile franchises. Radmanović would start in all 21 games in the 2007-08 playoffs and contributed with solid scoring and rebounding numbers.
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On February 18, 2007, one day before the 2007 All-Star Game, Radmanović told the Lakers he had separated his shoulder after falling on a patch of ice in Park City, Utah. But just days later, on February 23, Radmanović admitted that he was lying, and that the true cause of injury was snowboarding. The injury forced the Serbian to miss eight weeks of play.
Participating in snowboarding was a violation of Radmanović’s contract, which explicitly banned him from taking part in activities that pose a significant risk of injury. The injury put the 26-year-old’s contract in jeopardy, but Lakers General Manager Mitch Kupchak decided to view the injury as a mistake. Radmanović’s contract was not voided, despite his rough start with the Lakers.
Rather than voiding his contract, the Lakers fined Radmanović $500,000. He was scheduled to earn $5.2 million in 2006-07, but the fine amounted to roughly 10% of his salary. Despite the fine, Radmanović was grateful for the Lakers’ decision.
“I made a mistake, and I’m paying the price for it right now. It’s fair for what I did. I just want to move forward and try to get healthy and get back on the court,” Radmanović said in a Basketball Network article.
Radmanović would spend two and a half seasons with the Lakers, playing a key role in the 2008 season, where the Lakers ultimately fell to the Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals. In 2009, Radmanović was traded to the Charlotte Bobcats, just months before the Lakers would win their 12th NBA Championship later that year. He bounced between teams for another five years before retiring as a Chicago Bull in 2013. He played a total of 12 seasons in the NBA.
While Radmanović got off to a hot start in the NBA, he was never able to reach the stardom of the league’s biggest names. Despite this, Radmanović’s time playing in the Lakers’ purple and gold is one that very few will ever experience.
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