Luka Doncic often has been criticized for complaining to NBA referees too often during games, but on Wednesday night he came to one official’s defence.
The Los Angeles Lakers superstar confronted a courtside fan and appeared to have them ejected after an incident involving Chelisa Painter.
During the third quarter of the Lakers game against the Kings at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, a loose ball bounced to a fan seated next to the basket’s stanchion at L.A.’s end of the floor.
But instead of simply tossing or rolling the ball back to a player or official, the man fired a hard chest pass at Painter, who didn’t seem fully prepared for it as she was signalling possession for the Lakers.
Doncic didn’t appreciate the hard pass from the fan and signalled to arena staff to have the fan ejected.
The man, who had grey hair and was wearing a black jacket and hoodie, was then escorted away by security.
“He just tossed, really strong, the ball towards the ref,” Doncic said after the game. “I was just asking him, ‘What the hell is he doing?’”
Doncic seemingly censored himself in his post-game comment, as video of the incident appeared to show the Slovenian asking the fan: “What the f*** are you doing?”
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The incident didn’t seem to mess with Doncic at all, with the superstar guard scoring 40 points, adding to a streak of six straight games with at least 35.
Doncic made six three-pointers and added nine rebounds and seven assists in the 116-103 win over the Kings to help the Lakers improve to 7-2 on the season.
Thanks to Doncic’s prolific scoring stretch, he hit a mark that hasn’t been achieved in almost 40 years.
Doncic has scored 308 total points in his eight games so far this season, becoming the first player since Michael Jordan in 1988-89 to break 300 in their first eight contests.
However, Doncic is well short of the record – Wilt Chamberlain scored an astounding 418 points in his first eight games in 1962-63.