Peja Stojakovic shares honest take on Kings’ 2002 WCF against the Lakers: “If we’re being honest and fair as athletes, we missed a lot of shots” originally appeared on Basketball Network.
More than 20 years later, the pain of the 2002 Western Conference Finals still lingers in Sacramento. In front of their home crowd, the Kings pushed the mighty Los Angeles Lakers to seven games in what was peak basketball drama.
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It was supposed to be their moment, the year the Kings finally took down the dynasty, flipped the narrative, and punched their ticket to the NBA Finals. But instead of a breakthrough, they got heartbreak. Game 6 has lived in infamy ever since, with fans and players alike convinced that the officiating tilted the scales in favor of the big-market Lakers.
While fans and former players have never stopped talking about the missed calls and the “what ifs,” Peja Stojakovic recently offered a different perspective on the matter. Truthfully, it was surprising to hear someone from that squad not point fingers.
“I believe that’s the prevailing mindset among us,” said the Serbian sharpshooter when asked about the possible outside interference in their series against the Purple and Gold.
Peja offered a different perspective on that series
Even with the refereeing controversy still lingering in NBA lore, he made it clear that, at the end of the day, the Kings had the tools to finish the job — but didn’t. Unlike many of his former teammates who have come out swinging at the officiating in Game 6, Peja took a different route, sticking to what he knows best: basketball.
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Reflecting on the loss with the kind of honesty that only comes with enough time passed, Stojakovic acknowledged the whispers but never let them influence his whole perspective.
“In 2002, we definitely had our chances. We even had Game 7 at home. But if we’re being honest and fair as athletes, we missed a lot of shots, a lot of free throws. We didn’t secure defensive rebounds when we needed to… So without going too deep into anything else — because sports always have those moments we look back on, like Game 6 — those moments leave a mark on our careers,” he added. “But I truly believe that, as a team, we played better basketball the following year. We were more complete and more mature.”
So close, yet so far
One of the setbacks on the journey to the top was his own ankle injury, which Peja suffered in the second round against the Dallas Mavericks. It kept him out of the early part of the Lakers series and clearly affected his rhythm when he returned. The Serbian forward admitted that the timing couldn’t have been worse — not just for him personally, but for a Kings team that relied heavily on his floor spacing and offensive presence.
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The sting of 2002 never fully fades to this day, and probably never will. Game 6 lives on in highlight reels, documentaries, and debates that never seem to end. But for Peja, the most painful part isn’t the officiating itself; it’s the knowledge that they let their best shot slip away. And it’s not lost on him that the following year, the Kings might’ve actually been better and more cohesive.
But in the NBA, sometimes your best team doesn’t get your best result. That 2002 squad was the closest Sacramento ever got to the mountaintop. And for all the noise that still surrounds that series against Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant, Stojakovic’s story reminds us that even when the “universe” is against you, you can shut it down by knocking down shots. However, they were “just” unable to do so.
This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Jun 11, 2025, where it first appeared.