Sasha Vujacic is definitely not your typical pro basketball player. He grew up in Maribor, a small city in Slovenia, and never even saw a live National Basketball Association game until he put on a Los Angeles Lakers uniform.
And instead of living in a raucous bachelor pad in an exotic neighborhood, he shares a rambling ranch house with his parents, brother and sister on a quiet L.A. residential street. That is until he gets out the car keys.
While owning a Lamborghini, Mercedes-Benz or Audi, or even one of each, is not that atypical of pro athletes, Vujacic s cars are unique in that he likes the factory look, rather than adding paint and big shiny wheels. It s also a pretty impressive collection of machinery for a guy who didn t even have a driver s license until he came to this country when the Lakers drafted him in 2004.
The only goal I had growing up was to make it to the NBA, says the lanky 6-foot-7-inch, 195-pound 23-year-old who turns 24 on March 8.
Sasha s mother was a professional volleyball player in the region of Yugoslavia now known as Slovenia, so sports was a way of life growing up in school.
At age 15, Vujacic moved to Italy and began his professional basketball career a year later. Being in Italy also sparked his interest in automobiles.
I had an older friend at home who had a Ferrari and I saw how everybody acted around him when they saw his car, but I started to notice cars, like Alfa Romeos and Audis, when I moved to Italy. I was fascinated by the whole science of the automobile, but I had no license, so I could only imagine what it would be like to drive. Then I came [to California] and it s my life.
I think every car has it s own heart, something unique that s the Audi and not the Mercedes, and that makes the Mercedes different from a Ferrari. It s amazing, only I have to slow down. I have too many [speeding] tickets. I want to be a good citizen and respect all the laws.
That s pretty tough to do when his latest additions are a V10-powered Audi S8 sedan and a Lamborghini LP640.
I have had my Mercedes CLS 550 about a year and it is beautiful and very fast. But now I have the Audi S8 and it is a beast. It goes like a rocket. Every European has to have an Audi because it is one of the best cars in the world.
When he was in Europe, Vujacic developed an interest in Formula One racing; he rooted for Ferrari because of Michael Schumacher.
F1 is unbelievable. Everybody would wear red in Italy to root for Schumacher. He s a tremendous driver.
So why was Vujacic taking delivery of a Lamborghini the day he met with Celebrity Car? I just love it because it looks like a spaceship. I want to kiss it every time I get inside, he jokes.
Celebrity Car is produced by Wheelbase Communications in conjunction with quarterly publication Celebrity Car Magazine (celebritycarmagazine.com)
and the duPont Registry
(dupontregistry.com).
