The controversial second technical foul called on Luka Doncic during Tuesday’s Lakers loss to the Thunder was rescinded on Wednesday by the NBA.
The NBA said the decision to get rid of Doncic’s technical came after a “league office review.”
The controversy surrounding the foul stemmed from the fact that it seemed likely that Doncic had been chirping at a fan and not at a game official, as referee J.T. Orr had originally thought.
Orr was the one who made the call and crew chief Tony Brothers insisted after the game that Doncic had “looked directly at an official and used vulgar language.
Doncic denied that being the case when he spoke with reporters after the game.
“I never got a fan ejected,” Doncic said. “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.”
Superstar LeBron James described the circumstances that occurred as “weird” and also insisted that Doncic was talking to a fan and not the ref.
“I don’t know why the ref was taking it personal. He had already given Luka one [technical] and Luka knew that,” James said. “Luka was going back and forth at that time with a fan sitting courtside. … The ref took it upon himself to think that it was vs. him, whatever the case may be.”
The technical foul was Doncic’s second of the game and was his 14th of the season.
The decision to rescind it at least pulls Doncic back a bit from the one-game automatic suspension that he would receive if he reaches 16 technicals this season.
But the move still won’t turn Tuesday’s outcome around for the Lakers, who watched as the Thunder went on a 28-11 run to end the game and won 136-120.
