This is as bizarre an ejection as you were ever going to see.
The Lakers’ Luka Doncic was trash-talking with a fan courtside in Oklahoma City after a made basket that gave the Lakers the lead, but official J.T. Orr thought it was aimed at him, gave Doncic his second technical of the game and ejected him.
It changed the game. The Lakers led by one at the time of the ejection and lost by 16.
After the game, Doncic said he often engages with fans and couldn’t get his head around what happened (quote via Dave McMenamin of ESPN).
“I never got a fan ejected. Never. But if [the fan 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.”
That fan, Jeremy Price, confirmed to ESPN that he was the one Doncic was talking to.
“During the game within the game, I mentioned that he was short [on his shot] and he missed it, and he turned around and he shot an expletive back and J.T. happened to see it and, at that point, T’d him up,” Price said.
After the game, referee crew chief Tony Brothers explained what happened with the second technical to a pool reporter: “He looked directly at an official and used vulgar language.”
Doncic complains to referees as much as any player in the league. He sometimes does not get back on defense or loses focus because he is so caught up in arguing with the officials. Because of that, Doncic has a short leash with many officials, he does not get the benefit of the doubt that a guy like Lebron James often gets. That reputation cost him and the Lakers here.
Still, this was a blunder by Orr and speaks to an arrogance with NBA officials — they are rarely open to changing their minds or admitting an error (unless a video review forces them to). Orr misread the situation, but not only would he not back down, Tony Brothers had to have his back to the media rather than own an error. The officials can and need to do better.
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