One day after becoming confrontational with an ESPN reporter when discussing the incident, Mavericks star Luka Doncic said he “probably shouldn’t” have asked to get a heckling fan ejected from their game Wednesday.
“It was the whole game, a little bit,” Doncic said during an “NBA on TNT” interview on Thursday. “But I was really frustrated that we were losing. I twisted my ankle in the first half, it was just a lot of emotions. Probably shouldn’t have done that.
“When I’m wrong I admit it, so probably shouldn’t have done that. But it was just the whole game going on.”
This was just the latest example of frustration mounting for the Mavericks.
They’ve lost three consecutive games and five of their last seven, including their 132-109 defeat in Dallas when Devin Booker collected 46 points and Doncic led the Mavericks with 34.
Their push for a postseason berth — something that didn’t materialize last year even after acquiring Kyrie Irving from the Nets ahead of the trade deadline — has only led, so far, to the No. 8 seed in the Western Conference, at 24-20, entering Friday’s games.
And in the third quarter Wednesday, one Suns fan sitting near midcourt, who also heckled Doncic in the first half, allegedly shouted, “Luka, you’re tired! Get your ass on the treadmill!”
While Doncic appeared to ask — by gesturing twice to security officials, according to ESPN — for the person to get ejected, the Suns fan left voluntarily, the outlet reported.
When asked about the incident postgame, Doncic, averaging a career-best 33.6 points per game, criticized the ESPN reporter asking the question for always being “the first one to put out bad stuff about me.”
game voluntarily, according to ESPN. Screengrab via X/@espn_macmahon
The 24-year-old star later added — in response to a question about why he didn’t ask for the fan, wearing a Booker jersey, to get tossed in the first half — that he wouldn’t eject spectators because “they paid for tickets, but I had enough. It’s a little bit of frustration.”
Booker didn’t specify to ESPN about whether he’d provide future tickets for the fan, but the Suns guard added that he’ll “be getting his information.
“I appreciate the support,” Booker told the outlet. “I don’t know what he said. I hope he didn’t cross too many lines.”
The Mavericks will face the Hawks on Friday in Atlanta, while the Suns play the Pacers looking to win their seventh consecutive game.
