Grown men should never be talking trash about each other’s families, especially not at professional sporting events. The heat of the game is often used as an excuse to tolerate bad behavior when things go overboard like they did last night when the LA Lakers beat the Orlando Magic, it’s not good for anyone; not the players and definitely not the fans.
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Heading into the last minute of the tense game, Luka Doncic and Goga Bitadze were seen having a go at each other and rather loudly at that. Some slurs were thrown, and mothers were remembered as both players received technical fouls. For Doncic, of course, this was his 16th of the season, so he now has to sit out the next game as the Lakers try to push their 9-game winning streak to 10.
For Bitadze, this has s meant condemnation, and not just from Lakers fans, former players and analysts but also from NFL legend Shannon Sharpe.
“You have got to be careful talking about people’s girls and wives. I know Lukas not married and had some issues with his mom …We know what he’s going through with his co parent. I understand all of that. But at the end of the day you have to be careful how you talk to someone about their family,” Sharpe said on the Nightcap Show, criticizing the Magic star.
“Everybody don’t play the same. What’s a joke to you, is death to someone else. Everybody talking bout ‘it’s just jokes’, you not a comedian … Everyday don’t play like you play. ‘I was just playing.’ Ok. Ok just playing, when somebody slap the fire out of you,” he warned.
Shannon Sharpe reacts to Goga telling Luka he would ‘f*ck his whole family’
“You gotta be careful talking about peoples girls and wives. I know Lukas not married and had some issues with his mom… We know what he’s going through with his co parent. I understand all of that. But… pic.twitter.com/Wd2k8P6fe5
— NBA Courtside (@NBA__Courtside) March 22, 2026
Whether or not Sharpe’s words have reached Bitadze remains to be seen. But the Georgian was seen remorseful during the post-game press conference, while explaining that it was Doncic who had been abusing him in Serbian and he had just repeated whatever had been said to him.
“He [Doncic] said something about my mother. Which, it’s really inappropriate. We don’t say that stuff during the game. So, I don’t know if he knew that I understood his language or not. So I just said whatever he told me or [about] my mother [and] said it back. That was pretty much it,” Bitadze explained.
Doncic and Lakers head coach, however, have maintained that it was the Georgian who had started the altercation by threatening to “f**k his family.” It doesn’t seem like either party is intent on taking their foot of the pedal but the Lakers have already appealed the technical foul and are hoping that Doncic doesn’t have to sit out their next game against the Detroit Pistons.
