Luka Doncic claimed Orlando Magic center Goga Bitadze had some choice words for his family during the Los Angeles Lakers’ Saturday game at Kia Center in Orlando, Fla.
Doncic and Bitadze were both hit with technical fouls late in the third quarter of the contest after the two continued to chirp at each other. The technical foul Doncic received was his 16th of the season, meaning he is slated to be suspended for the Lakers’ Monday game against the Detroit Pistons.
Speaking to reporters after the Lakers’ 105-104 win, Doncic stated that Bitadze had crossed the line by threatening his family.
“I let my team down getting that last tech,” Doncic said during his postgame press conference. “But honestly, I wasn’t trying to. He said at [the free-throw line] that he would f–k my whole family. At some point, I just can’t stand it. I’ve got to stand up for myself. But I know I’ve got to do better.”
Bitadze denied having said anything of that nature in a statement to ESPN’s Dave McMenamin.
“I have all the respect for Luka and what he has done,” Bitadze told McMenamin. “I really respect everybody’s family. Where I come from, it’s really sacred and we really respect each other’s family. I would never directly say that.”
Bitadze, who is Georgian, claimed that the Slovenian Doncic had started their beef by saying “some inappropriate things in the Serbian language” that rubbed him the wrong way. Bitadze added that he had played in Serbia before and understood what Luka supposedly said, but was unsure Doncic knew that. He asserted that his remarks to Doncic were “nothing towards his family or anybody.”
The Lakers are reportedly appealing for Doncic’s technical foul to be rescinded.
