Sandro Mamukelashvili opens up on joining Lakers, life in LA

LAS VEGAS — It’ll be another three months before Sandro Mamukelashvili takes his first real shot for the Los Angeles Lakers — his main quest after signing with the franchise shortly after free agency started last week.

But on Saturday night, while the Lakers’ Summer League team was taking on the Dallas Mavericks at the Thomas & Mack Center, Mamukelashvili took other kinds of shots for his new team. 

Mamukelashvili became the latest NBA player to trade in his jersey for a photographer’s camera, shooting the first half of Saturday’s game from the first row of the courtside media section inside of the arena. 

“I love doing extra stuff,” Mamukelashvili told The California Post. “They call me Side Quest King. So I definitely love it. I’m enjoying it. I’m learning a lot.”

Harboring an interest in photography, Mamukelashvili (“Sometimes I try to take artsy pictures that don’t make [any] sense,” he said. “But I’ve got to explain to people why they’re good.”) quickly found out the challenges of the craft.

He exclaimed “Ahh, I missed it!” after Arthur Kaluma’s pump-and-drive layup four-and-a-half minutes into the game. 

He talked about how much he liked to zoom in, but realized he had to find the balance of how far to zoom in and how much space to give his subject. 

By the second quarter, he started stretching out his wrists as the weight of the camera started to set in.

“Oh my god, it’s crazy how hard is it to hold the camera steady at the same time, make sure you zoom in correctly, zoom out,” Mamukelashvili told The Post. “Definitely need some strength on your wrist, it’s tough.”

During a Lakers fastbreak in the first quarter, he said out loud to himself: “Run run run … give me action.” Later, he added, “I’m ready … I’m ready.”

Mamukelashvili got so into the side quest that he found himself cheering for a Mavericks player to dunk. And when jokingly asked by The Post who he was cheering for, he quipped, “I need a statement!” 

“The challenging part is, I would say, making sure you are catching the right moment,” Mamukelashvili said.

At one point in the first quarter, Mamukelashvili gave his photography skills a grade of B+.  

“Still got a little bit of action to go,” he said. “So, let’s see what I can cook up here.”

And then, Mamukelashvili met the moment, capturing William Kyle III’s two-handed dunk late in the opening quarter, which bumped Mamukelashvili’s self-assessed grade up to an A-.

By the time the second quarter rolled around, Mamukelashvili found his flow.

“I’m creating art right now, man,” he said as a Laker social media employee gave him Meta Glasses to capture more content. 

What was his best shot of the game?

“It’s too many of them,” he responded. 

Soon, Mamukelashvili will find himself back in a familiar position on the other side of the camera.

But it’ll be in the Lakers’ Purple and Gold after playing for the Toronto Raptors (2025-26), San Antonio Spurs (2023-25) and Milwaukee Bucks (2021-23) since being the No. 54 pick in the 2021 draft. 

“Just the name itself — all of the legends play for the Lakers,” Mamukelashvili told The Post of why he signed with the famed team. “The organization is a very high-level organization. They’re starting a new page, and it’s just unbelievable to be part of it.” 

Mamukelashvili, who got a “Mamba Mentality” tattoo while he was in college at Seton Hall, grew up a fan of late Lakers icon Kobe Bryant. 

“I could only imagine this really in 2K, that I would be playing for this team,” Mamukelashvili said. “I’m so excited, so happy. The coaching staff is amazing, and I can’t wait to just put the jersey on, go out there and just play my heart out every night. You gotta have a chip on your shoulder when you play for the Lakers.”

Mamukelashvili is a significant part of the Lakers’ roster reconstruction around superstar guard Luka Dončić.

The Lakers’ moves have included re-signing Austin Reaves (four years, $185 million), sign-and-trading for Walker Kessler (four years, $130 million), signing Quentin Grimes (four years, $60 million), Collin Sexton (two years, $19.2 million) and Kevon Looney (one year, $3.9 million) and acquiring Jaden Hardy from the Wizards in a trade that sent Deandre Ayton to Washington. 

Mamukelashvili (four years, $52 million), along with Reaves, Kessler and Grimes, were among the players who signed long-term deals with a player option for the 2029-30 season. 

This deal signified the belief president of basketball operations/general manager Rob Pelinka and coach JJ Redick have in Mamukelashvili and in the team’s long-term vision.

The 6-foot-9, 240-pound Mamukelashvili is coming off of a career-year with the Raptors, receiving three third-place votes for Sixth Man of the Year. His scoring average (11.2 points), field goal percentage (52.3%), rebounds average (4.9), assists average (1.9), steals average (.8) and blocks average (.5) with Toronto in 2025-26 were all career-best marks. 

“They just see me as a basketball player who can go out there, play multiple positions, bring the rhythm,” Mamukelashvili told The Post. “They know I’m gonna play hard; I won’t take possessions off and they understand that I really want to win. That’s where I fit. 

“Having players like Luka, Austin Reaves — all those guys who are such amazing creators — that’s gonna help me so much offensively, just flow in it and hopefully get a lot of open corner 3s and then just knock them down.”

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