UCLA Men's Basketball: New Bruin Explains How He Transitioned To Hoops From Another Sport

Not an easy task at all!

One of the more experienced guards on UCLA men's basketball team heading into the 2023-2024 season, Lazar Stefanovic, has been praised for his ability to move without the ball and always try to keep the floor spacing as ideal as possible.

Stefanovic has two collegiate seasons of experience with him and even though it's only his first year in Westwood, he brings forth a level of knowledge and maturity that the coaching staff hopes the younger guys latch on to.

The 6'7 guard was an iron man in his first two years with the University of Utah as he did not miss a single game and became known as a sharpshooter. However, Stefanovic did not love basketball from the jump at a young age. He preferred soccer but a number of coin flips along with projections of his height persuaded him to focus on hoops.

"Basketball was something that my parents wanted me to do, at first, as it's more an indoor sport," Stefanovic says. "Back then, I wanted to play soccer. They were more in favor of basketball since it was inside, and I always seemed to be getting sick as a kid. After playing soccer for two or three years, that was a hard decision to make."

(Via UCLA Athletics)

"What am I going to keep playing? I remember being in my room, I'd be there flipping coins saying something like, 'OK, if it is heads, it's basketball. Tails, it's soccer.' The coin would land, and I'd be like, 'I don't like that.' So I'd keep flipping it like a 100 times but couldn't make a decision about it."

(Via UCLA Athletics)

It's clear that Stefanovic hopes to be a leader for the Bruins this year and wants to connect with the community. We hope to continue learning more about him and we are certainly glad he chose basketball.

To read his entire interview, check out UCLA Athletics!