MANILA, Philippines — There was no love lost between Slovenia superstar Luka Doncic and the referees during his team’s quarterfinal loss to Canada, 100-89, at the Mall of Asia Arena on Wednesday.
Doncic was forced to watch the final 6:37 minutes of the match from the locker room after he was ejected, incurring his second technical foul for continuous complaining.
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As he saw his national team relegated to the classification phase, Doncic vented his ire after the game.
“I think everybody knows what my frustration was,” said Doncic, who finished with 26 points, four rebounds, five assists and two steals.
“Playing for the national team, it’s a lot of emotions. A lot of times I don’t control myself which I’m having problems with.”
Despite admitting he has difficulty controlling his emotions, the Dallas Mavericks stalwart felt that he was in the right place, citing issues with the officiating.
“You know, the referees told one of the guys ‘we’re not gonna call a foul on him because he’s coming at us’ I think this is not fair,” he said.
“I know I complained a lot but I don’t think it’s fair. They’ve been playing very physical with me, but if you say that, it’s not fair,” he added.
Slovenia’s head coach Aleksander Sekulic sympathized with his player, saying that he recognizes the struggles Doncic faced.
“It’s difficult to play a game you got hit constantly, all game long. It’s difficult to control the emotions and we work a lot on this but it’s very difficult and he has the ball a lot in his hands. It’s frustrating for Luka. You know you get tired from this. It’s very difficult that’s why the emotions come out,” said the tactician.
“I know it’s not great, it doesn’t look good but it’s very, very difficult and that makes Luka so special because he’s a great player and it’s tough to guard him in a legal way,” he concluded.
After everything, Doncic and Slovenia must recover quickly as they plunge back into action on Thursday against Lithuania in the classification phase, less than 24 hours from the tough loss.