Sports are more fun to follow when there are rivalries, and even more so when there is actual bad blood. Since Luka Doncic is a Laker now, there are reasons for him to, say, hate the Celtics, the team that beat his Mavericks in the 2023 finals as well. Maybe there is bad blood there, but right now, his biggest rival seems to be Dennis Schroder.
Advertisement
Luka and Schroder got into it during the December 28 game between the Lakers and Kings. It all seemed to stem from Luka trash-talking Schroder during the game, calling him a “b****” and taunting him for turning down a lucrative contract extension from the Lakers in 2021.
Schroder didn’t take it too kindly. He reportedly confronted Doncic after the game and has been suspended for three games for it. The penalized him for “confronting and attempting to strike another player.” Allegedly, Schroder found Luka in the tunnel after the game and attacked him.
Schroder poured some gasoline on the fire by commenting on Shams Charania’s Instagram post about his suspension, “Attempting,” with the eyes emoji and a laughing emoji. This has led most people to believe he got at least one shot in on the Slovenian superstar. That’s certainly what Draymond Green interpreted it as.
“If you’re getting suspended for three games,” said Green, “did you really attempt a punch, or did you connect on a punch? Because I’ve seen guys get suspended for two games that connected on a punch.”
Green, valuable player though he is for the Warriors, is sort of an expert on getting suspended and on punching people, as a matter of fact. He once decked Jordan Poole, his own teammate, during practice. He’s also been suspended over the years for, among other things, choking Rudy Gobert, stomping on Domantas Sabonis, roundhouse punching Jusuf Nurkic in the face, and most infamously, kicking LeBron James in the groin in the 2016 Finals.
Draymond mentioned that shot on LeBron when talking about the Schroder-Luka incident. “What I will say to Dennis is, I got suspended from a game in the NBA Finals, and I didn’t connect on anything, so, you know,” he said cheekily.
Three games are child’s play to Draymond. He was suspended for five games for the choke on Gobert, and ended up sitting out 12 games after decking Nurkic. That may seem excessive, but then again, it happened on the court in full view of everybody and was basically a felony.
Schroder served the second game of his three-game suspension when the Kings took on the Lakers again last night. His team avenged that late December loss/trash-talking by dishing out to L.A. a 124-112 serving of humble pie, despite Luka’s 42 points.
Draymond believes that this story is still developing. Maybe we’ll eventually get some video evidence or an eyewitness account of the altercation.
In the meantime, we’ll all have to wait until the final meeting between the Kings and the Lakers on March 1 to see Schroder and Luka go head-to-head again.
