Vladimir Radmanovic made a painful admission Friday: He had lied about his shoulder injury.
Six days after dislocating his right shoulder in Park City, Utah, during the All-Star break, and three days after telling the Lakers he'd hurt himself slipping on a patch of ice, Radmanovic admitted he got hurt while snowboarding, an activity specifically prohibited in his contract.
"I wasn't thinking too much," Radmanovic said of his initial explanation. "After a couple of days, when things settled down, I realized I did the wrong thing.
"I did a stupid thing snowboarding. I don't want to be a liar. That's not something that I am. Obviously I lied, but there was a way to correct it.... I decided to ... bring out the truth. And I'm really glad I did.
"When you lie to the whole world, and then come out four or five days later and say, 'That's not true,' it's embarrassing. I hope people will have some understanding and some forgiveness."
Radmanovic initially admitted the true cause of his injury to Lakers Coach Phil Jackson on Friday morning. The two then went to see General Manager Mitch Kupchak.
Neither man was surprised that Radmanovic had done more than slip on a street.
"When a person goes to a ski resort," Kupchak said, "and gets an injury associated with winter sports, your antenna goes up."
Speaking to the media earlier this week, Jackson had joked about hiring a detective to investigate Radmanovic's claim.
"The truth will out. He knew that and he came forward," Jackson said Friday.
"After a couple of days," Radmanovic said, "I figured out the best thing to do was to come out with the truth, no matter what the consequences and penalties were going to be.
"I just couldn't keep it to myself anymore.... I felt really bad about letting my teammates down, letting the whole organization down, not letting them know what really happened."
Said teammate Ronny Turiaf, "Everybody makes mistakes. He probably had friends telling him how much fun he was going to have [snowboarding]. I am disappointed he is not going to be out on the court for us. We will miss him."
Radmanovic, 26, in his sixth pro season, told reporters Friday that he had never snowboarded before.
"Unfortunately before I stepped on that board, I wasn't really thinking," he said. "Things happen, but you never really think it's going to happen to you."
The accident occurred at mid-day Saturday.
