Luka Doncic had surprising reason for not getting Thunder fan ejected

Dallas Mavericks star Luka Doncic may have intervened to keep an Oklahoma City Thunder fan from being ejected from Thursday’s game, possibly for motivational purposes.

In the latest episode of the “Take Dat Wit You” podcast, Mavericks studio analyst Brian Dameris said he watched Doncic intervene on a fan’s behalf during a timeout in Game 2 of the Western Conference semifinals. Doncic had some sort of altercation with a fan during the game, and according to Dameris, referee Scott Foster was planning to eject the fan for heckling Doncic’s family. Doncic told him not to, apparently because it was fueling the Mavericks star.

“During the timeout, Scott Foster wanted to throw that fan out, and went up to Luka, and Luka was like, ‘Don’t worry about it. We’re good,’ put a thumbs up,” Dameris said. “That just riles him up. That gets him going. You don’t poke bears. I don’t know why people don’t get this. And he was that guy that’s going to strap his team on his back, be that magnet for the defense.”

Doncic told the media after the game that the individual had been “going at my family.” The Mavericks star added it was “kind of nuts” that a grown man would behave that way.

Doncic was awful in Game 1, which likely already had him motivated entering the second game of the series. A heckling fan was only going to fuel him further. He wound up scoring 29 points while collecting 10 rebounds and seven assists in a series-tying victory, so things seem to have worked out for him.