“Baby Peja” Stojakovic lived up to his last name with his dominant performance in the ACC Tournament

Nothing makes the collective sports fan feel older than the arrival of the next generation. From Arch Manning to Bronny James, the kids are grabbing the headlines and dating even some of the youngest fans with memories of their uncles or fathers still fresh in their heads. While they can present a feeling of dread about the unstoppable passage of time, when they live up to the name, their performances can provide one of the world’s sweetest elixirs, nostalgia. 

Peja Stojakovic was part of the early wave of international players taking over the NBA. The fan-favorite small forward was a three-time all-star and one-time All-NBA second-team selection over his 13-year NBA career. Stojakovic starred on the Sacramento Kings as they pushed to dethrone the Los Angeles Lakers in the early 2000s, so it’s fitting that his son, Andrej, blossoms into a college basketball star while representing northern California. 

Andrej, a 6-foot-7 playmaking wing began his collegiate career at Stanford last season, averaging 7.8 points a game as a freshman, but transferred to ACC rival (weird right?) Cal after a coaching change in Palo Alto. On Wednesday night in the second round of the ACC Tournament, the Cardinal ended his season, but “Baby Peja” gave his former team everything it could handle. 

Stojakovic went head-to-head with Stanford’s first-team All-ACC center Maxime Reynaud, who finished with 23 points and eight rebounds in a 78-73 Cardinal win. Stojackovic’s 37-point performance came on the heels of a 29-point outing in a first-round overtime win against Virginia Tech. 

Through two postseason games, he averaged 33 points, five rebounds, and 1.5 assists a game. For the season, he led the Golden Bears in scoring at 17.9 points a game but shot just 43% from the field and 32% from three. He was named an All-ACC honorable mention and with Cal out of the at-large conversation for the NCAA Tournament with a 14-19 record, his season, and potentially his collegiate career, ended on a high note. 

Stojakovic was not included in Christopher Kline’s NBA Mock Draft 4.0 for FanSided.com, but with such a dominant performance in the postseason, he could test the waters this offseason and ultimately find significant NBA interest. If not, Stojakovic may need to venture outside of northern California in the transfer portal to become an even bigger star in college basketball because the Golden Bears have not played in March Madness since 2016, Jaylen Brown’s freshman year.

His father, Peja, was drafted 14th overall in the 1996 NBA Draft while playing for PAOK Basketball Club in Greece.