Luka Doncic was controversially ejected in the fourth quarter of the Los Angeles Lakers‘ 136-120 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Tuesday. Doncic was slapped with his second technical after talking trash to a Thunder fan, with the referee J.T. Orr seemingly believing it was aimed at him. The Thunder fan, Jeremy Price, has now confirmed Doncic was talking to him and shared what they were telling each other.
“During the game within the game, I mentioned that he was short and he missed it and he turned around and he shot an explicative [sic] back and J.T. [Orr] happened to see it and that point, T’d him up,” Price said.
Here is the incident in case you missed it.
LUKA DONCIC WAS EJECTED FOR TALKING TO A FAN pic.twitter.com/J1Dq4IA7kF
— LakersMuse (@LALMuse) April 9, 2025
You can see Doncic desperately indicating to Orr that he was talking to Price and not him. The official had no interest in his explanation, though, and the Slovenian had to exit the game. It was later confirmed in the Poor Report interview by Tony Brothers that Orr believed Doncic’s talk was aimed at him.
Q: “Why was Luka Doncic assessed his second technical foul by Orr? Was it the official’s judgment that he was speaking to him or to a fan?”
Tony Brothers: “He looked directly at an official and used vulgar language.”
You can see that Doncic was looking in Orr’s direction in that clip. The vulgar language wasn’t directed at an official for once, though.
As for Doncic’s first technical, he got it in the third quarter for arguing with the officials over Jarred Vanderbilt not getting a foul after being hit on the head. Who gave that foul to him? Well, of course it was Orr. Brothers confirmed that the first technical was issued for directing profanity at an official.
Doncic now has 14 technical fouls to his name this season, which leaves him just two away from a one-game suspension. The 26-year-old will need to be very careful moving forward.
Doncic finished with 23 points (7-15 FG), three rebounds, five assists, and a block against the Thunder, as the Lakers dropped to 48-31. The five-time All-Star spoke about his controversial ejection postgame.
“I never got a fan ejected,” Doncic said. “Never. But if he is going to talk, I’m going to talk back, like always. That had nothing to do with the ref. So, I didn’t really understand.”
Doncic was just extremely unfortunate there. His reputation certainly did hurt him, and you wonder if the league will rescind the second technical.
Getting back to Price, he revealed this wasn’t the first time he and Doncic had gone back and forth during a game. The Slovenian faced the Thunder in the playoffs last season when he was with the Dallas Mavericks, and Price claimed they had engaged in trash talk during that series.
There was certainly a lot of chirping going on when the Thunder and Mavericks faced off. Doncic had claimed that a Thunder fan had called out his family in Game 2. We don’t know who that individual was, but Price stated he kept things within the game, so it was unlikely to be him.
Doncic then ruthlessly talked trash to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Thunder fans in Game 5. He put up a triple-double that night to lead the Mavericks to victory and would do so again in Game 6 to take them to the Western Conference Finals.
Doncic would eventually lead the Mavericks to the NBA Finals, and who’d have thought back then that he wouldn’t even be on the team less than a year later. He’ll face off against the Mavericks for the first time in Dallas since the trade on Wednesday, and you better believe he’d want to make a statement.
