Evan Turner upset fans with his opinion on Serbian coach Darko Rajakovic, who is in charge of the Toronto Raptors. Rajakovic had one of the most explosive rants of the season after a loss to the Lakers, Turner mocked Darko by making fun of his accent. Naturally, Turner has had to walk back that comment already.
“Once again man, if you’re from Canada and don’t like what I said about coach Darko, if it offended you, I’m sorry – for real, for real. No funny sh*t. All love.”
Evan Turner issues an apology to Canada and Darko Rajaković
"If it offended you, I’m sorry – for real, for real. No funny sh*t. All love."
(h/t @OmerOsman200 )
— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) January 10, 2024
Turner had comments on an Instagram post about Darko’s rant and outright made fun of his accent, claiming he should’ve sent an American assistant coach to make the comments he did.
“You gotta let your assistant coaches do the rant when ‘you have accent.'”
This has to be one of the most tone-deaf comments by an NBA media personality. Turner isn’t a master of oration, so he had no business commenting on something like Darko’s accent. It’s quite blatantly xenophobic and would naturally upset Darko and the people around him, as seen by Dennis Schroder replying to Turner’s comment and calling him out.
Darko Rajakovic Was Furious About NBA Officiating
Even with Turner’s incredulous comments about Darko’s accent, there is no doubt that the Raptors head coach went off on one of the best rants against officials we have seen in a long time. He defended his players and called out the Lakers and the referees in one of the most animated head coach rants we’ve seen in years.
“They had to win tonight. If that’s the case, just let us know so we don’t show up for the game. That was not fair tonight. It’s not happening for the first time with us… What’s happening right now this season, it’s complete crap. There’s no explanation. They come out there, review it, and see what they want to see. They don’t want to hear us, the players. They just don’t want to protect us. Over the game, they got 36 free throws. In the fourth quarter, they got 23 free throws. What are we talking about? How are we supposed to play?””
Unfortunately, a loss is a loss and the Raptors need to accept it and move on. Their young core of Scottie Barnes, R.J. Barrett, and Immanuel Quickley is looking promising, with Pascal Siakam’s future unclear.
The Raptors have shown they can win games with their current roster, so maybe Masai Ujiri is convinced to keep Siakam and return to winning ways with this four-man core, along with center Jakob Poeltl.
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