The Los Angeles Lakers felt like there was something fishy going on with Luka Doncic’s ejection on Thursday.
Doncic was tossed from the team’s road game against the Oklahoma City Thunder. During the fourth quarter, Doncic said something to a fan who was sitting courtside after making a basket. But referee JT Orr, who was standing in the area where the fan was sitting, issued Doncic a technical foul, seemingly having thought that Doncic’s barb was directed at him. You can see the video here.
Earlier in the game (during the third quarter), Doncic had already been given a T by Orr for saying something to him in the middle of play. As a result, Doncic was ejected from the game after his subsequent technical from Orr in the fourth quarter.
Speaking with reporters after the game, Lakers forward Jarred Vanderbilt made an accusation about Orr. Vanderbilt claimed that Orr, after giving Doncic his first technical foul and receiving complaints from the Lakers because of it, said that he would “talk to anybody but Luka.” Vanderbilt, who also himself got a technical foul from Orr following the Doncic ejection for a taunt of OKC’s Alex Caruso, said that he felt that Doncic’s Ts were “personal.”
Referee crew chief Tony Brothers told the reporter pool after the game that Doncic’s first technical foul was for directing “profanity at a game official” and that the second technical foul was because Doncic “looked directly at an official and used vulgar language.”
In any case, the Lakers quickly fell apart after the Doncic ejection. They were up 108-107 at the time, but ended up losing 136-120 after allowing the Thunder to close the game on a 29-12 run.
As for Orr, he is in his 13th season as an NBA official and entered this year having already officiated nearly 600 career NBA games. But Orr is now the latest NBA referee to be accused of having an anti-Lakers bias.
