‘He’s not dirty’: Teammate backs Rakocevic

An unsportsmanlike foul from Nick Rakocevic has divided opinion this week, but one player who has no doubt about the actions of his teammate is Dejan Vasiljevic.

Rakocevic was labelled “dirty” by Phoenix owner Romie Chaudhari following an incident with Akech Aliir in Game 1 of the Playoff Series, with the 36ers big man hit with an unsportsmanlike foul.

But despite debate across the week around whether he should have been ejected from the game, Vasiljevic was quick to defend his teammate.

“People have said some stuff about him. I don't think he's a dirty player at all,” he said on Friday.

“If you watch the League and you watch what people do, there's people who actually do little cheap shots like Tassie does it really well, but they get away with it because that's their identity.

“A couple of the South East Melbourne players did it throughout the game to Bryce (Cotton) … try to slow people down. So I don't think one unsportsmanlike foul can be classified as a dirty player or a dirty action.”

Vasiljevic said he was disappointed with some of the commentary around the incident, with Chris Anstey labelling it a “cheap shot” after Damon Lowery was supportive of Rakocevic, saying it was time to “move on”.

“I just wasn't a fan of the comments, but we'll let our basketball do the talking,” Vasiljevic added.

“We'll just tell Nick to keep doing what he does best and that's play some good basketball.”

The 36ers travel to Melbourne to take on the Phoenix on Saturday night, with tip off from 5:30pm AEDT, live on ESPN.