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It's NBA's Rivalry Week, and so far things are off to a very contentious start. During Wednesday night's game between the Phoenix Suns and the Dallas Mavericks, things were chippy right out of the gate. In total, there were seven technical fouls given out during the game, including the rarely-seen triple-technical in the opening minutes of the game. But things took a turn for the worse in the 3rd quarter, when Dallas Mavericks star Luka Doncic requested that a Suns fan in attendance be removed from the arena.
As the story goes, a fan wearing a Devin Booker jersey had been cursing at the Mavericks MVP candidate for the entire game.
“He was cursing me the whole first half,” Doncic said after the game, per Tim McMahon of ESPN.com. When asked why he didn't ask for the fan to be ejected earlier, Doncic replied “Because I never would eject a fan. They paid for tickets, but I had enough. It's a little bit of frustration.”
Finally, in the 3rd quarter, an unnecessary shot at Luka's endurance and weight is what served as the straw that broke the camel's back.
“Luka, you're tired! Get your ass on the treadmill!”
Doncic responded by approaching the security chief on the court during the break between the 3rd and 4th quarters, pointing out the fan and requesting for him to be ejected. However, in a new twist, there was no further confrontation from that point on.
“The Suns fan that Luka Doncic requested to be ejected was not actually ejected,” according to a tweet from Tim McMahon. “The man exited voluntarily after being approached by an arena staffer.”
The loss drops the Mavericks to 24-20 on the season, and in the loss, Doncic picked up his eighth technical foul of the season. Getting caught up arguing with the officials has been an issue for Doncic for years, and after the game, Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd was asked how the team would address the lingering concerns.
“We'll talk to him about it,” Jason Kidd said after the game, per McMahon. “He's a competitor. He likes to have discussions with the referees, but he has to be better. And as a group, we have to be better.”
