Disrespected DJ to Keep Proving Doubters Wrong after Achilles

Written for nbl.com.au by Chris Pike

Sydney Kings sharpshooter DJ Vasiljevic felt disrespected preparing for his rookie NBL season and the whole way through it before a ruptured Achilles ended his standout campaign early, and now he's getting ready to continue proving the doubters wrong.

In terms of the rookie class for the last NBL season, all the pre-season talk surrounded Next Stars Josh Giddey and Mojave King on the heels of what LaMelo Ball did the previous season, and that didn’t go unnoticed by Vasiljevic.

He signed with the Sydney Kings and was ready to fire in the NBL following his college career at the University of Miami, but he couldn’t help but notice nobody was talking about him as someone ready to burst onto the scene.

It wasn’t quite nobody. Those who had seen him firsthand, including Perth Wildcats legends Shawn Redhage and Damian Martin had no hesitation in selecting him as their Rookie of the Year picks, but the general consensus was when it came to rookies, it was all about Giddey in Adelaide and King in Cairns.

However, Vasiljevic was playing so well for the Kings that had he not reputed his Achilles at home to the Perth Wildcats on April 8, that he might have both pipped Giddey for Rookie of the Year honours and helped lead Sydney to the playoffs.

It wasn’t quite to be but the 24-year-old who was born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada and grew up in Melbourne is eyeing off a return early in #NBL22 with the December start helping his cause, but also a close friend and rival coming back from the same injury.

"I'm getting very close to getting back out there. Obviously I've been doing great in the rehab process with Dave Hilliard here at the Kings and I've started doing individual sessions with Chase Buford and Kevin Lisch," Vasiljevic said.

"But I'm still just a little bit off the team stuff, it's very close, though, and I'm hoping that by late December or in early January that I'll be back playing. That's what they keep telling me but it just depends on how I keep ticking the boxes moving forward.

"The later season start helps me but it also helps Jack White obviously. We've been sending each other texts and stuff and our physios have been exchanging notes so it's kinda worked out really well for us. 

"But that's the way we can play with fans in the stands so by the time both of us come back we'll be playing in front of full crowds hopefully."

Looking back to last season and Vasiljevic couldn’t help but feel he wasn’t given the respect he felt he deserved for what he was going to be capable of, and then what he proved by putting up 15.4 points a game as a rookie.

He had 32 points in the NBL Cup against King and the Snakes, 28 early in the season against Giddey and the 36ers, and it was that chip on his shoulder to show that everyone should have thought more of him that drove him on.

"I felt disrespected. I went to college and played in the best conference in the world with Miami, but I felt held back there and they didn’t really let me play my game," Vasiljevic said.

"If you watch my time in college, at the time I had been to Uni Games, and it was just a whole disrespect when I got here. People were saying I wasn’t a Josh Giddey or Mojave King, but I had a f*** you mentality and felt like if they would disrespect me, I'd let my game do the talking out on the court. 

"I try to remain humble and when my name was up the top for Rookie of the Year, I knew it was possible if I continued how I was. That wasn’t my goal and my focus was on the championship with the Kings, but the disrespect I was feeling from everyone in the league at the time was just ridiculous. 

"I have something to prove when I come back and I think this Achilles has given me even more of a boost to want to come back and play even better than I was."

It was a source of frustration to Vasiljevic that he couldn’t help his Kings team fight for the playoffs last season after he went down 21 games into the campaign. 

While Rookie of the Year honours might have come his way had he kept going how he was, all he cared about was helping the Kings reach their potential.

That's his same goal now upon his return.

"I think if I continued to play the way I was last season where I was surprising a lot of people, and then we had Cooks coming back and were sitting third at the time. I think we would have made a good push for that second spot and go deep into the playoffs," he added.

"But again that's the life of basketball and things happen. It was frustrating, though, once I got hurt and I stayed around for a week or two after the surgery but Chris Pongrass and Paul Smith allowed me to go home and be with my family, and really didn’t watch any basketball because it was so tough to take not being part of it. 

"All I did was go outside, sit in a chair and shoot hoops with my sister but I've now got something to prove when I come back and I look forward to getting back playing in front of the Kings fans as well as with my new team under Chase Buford."

Speaking of Buford, Vasiljevic already has developed a close bond with his new coach on and off the basketball court, and he is excited by what this Kings team is going to be capable of in #NBL22.

"A big shoutout to Paul Smith, Bogues and CP for putting a great team together. Chase Buford is one hell of a coach with his experience and he's coming off winning an NBA championship with the Milwaukee Bucks," Vasiljevic said.

"He's also a great dude on the court trying to make us great but off the court, I've never had a coach like him who just wants to hang out with his players. He even plays Call of Duty with me and we get the chance to talk about a lot of things while we play. 

"Then we've also got Fleur (McIntyre) on board who is really experienced, we've got K-Lisch, Kicks (Daniel Kickert) is on board and also some great players in our team that I'm excited about. You put our starting five out there and you might try to stop one of us, but the other four will find ways to score so it's pretty exciting. 

"I'm not putting any expectations, I'm not going to say we are favourites to win, I'm just going to take it a game at a time. I don't want to give any motivation to anyone, I'm all about one game at a time and Goorj has been talking a bit of s*** about us and it might be something we talk about when we play them. 

"But our first game is against United and that's the rivalry I'm focusing on even though I'm not going to play. I'm still going to help the team with whatever I can to help them get that win. I'm looking forward to watching this team hoop and then being part of it."

As for himself, the delayed started to the season means that there's every chance Vasiljevic will be back within a month of #NBL22 commencing and he can't wait to show everyone just what he's capable of once again.

"I think for me the goal is to come back and show people that I'm healthy first. I was having that great of a season that I was attracting a lot of attention in Europe and even from some NBA teams, and for me that's the biggest one," Vasiljevic added.

"It's to come back and just show people that I'm healthy and that I can move and everything. I'm a winning player and I'm going out there to win, and I have that attitude that when I step out there I want to win. I hate losing. 

"So for me to come out and go against guys like Bryce Cotton again, and Nathan Sobey and Illawarra has put a good team together and I can't wait to go against them again. 

"They are going to look at me a whole lot differently and now they will think I was injured so I'll be a bit slower, but that's the motivation for me. No, I'm actually a lot quicker and I might move one way a little slower but I'm way more explosive and that's how I'm feeling. I just look forward to coming out and playing again."

It was quite the unfortunate set of events last season that saw in the same week not only Vasiljevic rupture his Achilles, but Melbourne United rookie Jack White do the same thing.

The pair have a long-standing friendship and long history together and it turned out somewhat a blessing in disguise they were able to help out each other through the whole recovery process.

It will be quite the special moment when they are on the floor together this season, but that competitive instinct won't diminish for Vasiljevic.

"I've known Jack for a very long time now and I consider him a really close brother of mine, and we are going to hug it out when we get out there," he said.

"But once the game is going, we are enemies and there's no brotherly love there. Once we're off the court again we'll chat about it and laugh like normal, and I want him to come back better than he was and I hope I can get back better than I was too.

"We both got hurt on freakish plays and that's just the game of basketball, you can't really predict when you're going to get hurt or when you're not. It was unfortunate for him to go down but a lot of people at my game when I got hurt that was their first basketball game. 

"To see me go down like I did, that hurt them a lot and that's kind of the memory they've got now and I'm a bit mad with the way it happened even though it's a freakish accident and could have happened to anyone. 

"It was good that me and Whitey have been exchanging calls and texts, and keeping each other positive along the way. It's been a big help for myself."

There are plenty of others that Vasiljevic has reached out to as he's gone through the whole rehabilitation process including his assistant coach Lisch, six-time Wildcats champion Damian Martin and South East Melbourne Phoenix rival Mitch Creek.

"I've worked closely with Kev and the surgeon I went to was the same one he used, and he has actually been moving quite well in practice and we keep making the joke about him coming out of retirement," Vasiljevic said. 

"He's happy with where he is though. Damo reached out to me and Creeky did too and he has been the big one for me. He stayed in communication the whole time to make sure my mental side was in a really good place to shoutout to him for that."