Busts Man's Car Mirror In Heated Altercation

Former NHL star Sean Avery busted a man's car mirror during a heated altercation in L.A. Thursday morning ... but he tells TMZ Sports he's the real victim in the situation.

Here's the deal ... law enforcement tells us cops were called out to the 8300 block of the Yucca Trail near West Hollywood around 10 AM to respond to a call of vandalism.

What happened preceding the call, though seems to boil down to two sides.

On one end, there's Niku Azam. On the other, there's Avery ... and both guys claim the other dude was the aggressor in the incident.

Azam says a couple weeks ago, back in mid-February, he got into a confrontation with Avery in the neighborhood after unintentionally blocking the former…