The King Of Shooters

But then Sacramento's entire offense is tailor-made for Stojakovic's talents. The Kings are considered a fast-break team, but they are actually more of a run-and-read team that doesn't get many spectacular finishing dunks. They play an uptempo style but use it mostly to flow into their half-court offense, making reads on the run, endlessly curling, cutting and backdooring until somebody gets open. "From the time I started playing," says Stojakovic, "I've always been the high-energy, never-stop-moving guy." He has a laugh at his own expense. "On offense, that is."

Like most European players, Stojakovic was branded a soft defender in his early years—not undeservedly—and he's still no stopper. In that, he mirrors his team, which through Sunday stood near the bottom of the league in opponents' field goal percentage (24th) and opponents' scoring (25th). Adelman concedes that Sacramento was better on defense last season and reasons that it's because the players the Kings lost through trade or free agency ( Jimmy Jackson, Keon Clark, Hedo Turkoglu and Scot Pollard) were multiposition defenders.

What Stojakovic wants to do, generally, is get tougher, which involves a whole package of modifications: throwing his defender off him ( Adelman has already implored league officials to look at the extent to which Stojakovic is held and grabbed); becoming more rugged on defense; mixing it up on the boards (he was averaging 5.9 rebounds per game at week's end but had a season-high 12 last Friday); and taking his offensive game closer to the basket to become a low-post force, something Bird has suggested.

But it won't be easy to change Stojakovic's nature: He is at heart more nice guy than tough guy. His agent, David Bauman of SFX, calls him a mensch, a thoughtful man who always asks about people around the office and shows up at Bauman's home with gifts for his wife and two sons. Like Divac, Stojakovic has an openness and generosity of spirit, and that has helped Stojakovic become a citizen of three cultures. A native of Belgrade, Stojakovic makes his second home in Thessalon�ki, Greece, where Petrie first saw him, draining jumper after jumper as a 17-year-old playing for PAOK in the Greek pro league. ( Sacramento drafted him in the first round in 1996 and signed him in June '98.) The U.S. will no doubt have the marquee basketball team at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, but Serbia and Montenegro's Stojakovic may be the most popular player in the tournament. "After the Olympics, Peja is going to go like this" says Olympic teammate Divac, raising his index finger to the sky and making a noise like a rocket's.

For now, the Kings will be content if Stojakovic plays exactly the way he has been playing. In the postseason, however, they will need him to go like this, even as the Lakers, and the rest of the league, hope he once again goes in the other direction.

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