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Los Angeles Lakers superstar Luka Doncic has been dealt a fresh blow after he was suspended one game without pay by the NBA on Saturday.
The Slovenian star, who is embroiled in a bitter battle with his ex-fiancée over their children as they go through an ugly separation, has been punished for receiving his 16th technical foul of the season.
Doncic, the NBA’s scoring leader, got whistled for a double technical foul during the third quarter of the Lakers’ 116-99 victory over the Brooklyn Nets on Friday night.
The Nets’ Ziaire Williams was celebrating a foul called against Doncic by gleefully screaming in the Slovenian’s personal space. When Doncic reached out to push Williams’ arm, Williams responded with a backhand swipe across Doncic’s face.
Under NBA rules, a player or coach is automatically suspended without pay for one game when he receives his 16th technical foul during the regular season.
For every two additional technical fouls during that regular season, they will be automatically suspended without pay for an additional game. It means Doncic is now walking a tightrope.
Lakers superstar Luka Doncic has been suspended one game without pay by the NBA
It comes amid the Slovenian superstar’s bitter battle with his ex-fiancée over their children
Doncic, who scored 41 points against Brooklyn, will serve his suspension on Monday when the Lakers host the Washington Wizards.
‘He was yelling in my face three times,’ Doncic said after the game.
‘I just wanted to get out of there. It’s a double tech, of course. What can I say? I didn’t even talk. I just wanted to get out of there. (The referee) said my push was exaggerated, which (it) was obviously not. I don’t know what else to say.’
Officials reviewed the incident before issuing technical fouls to both players.
Doncic already had a technical rescinded last week after he was whistled for a verbal altercation with Orlando’s Goga Bitadze. The league didn’t announce why it was rescinded, but Doncic said Bitadze insulted his family in Serbian – and Bitadze denied it.
It comes just days after Doncic accused ex-fiancée Anamaria Goltes of filing for child support for their two children in the wrong state in order to receive better payments.
According to court documents, the 27-year-old Doncic filed a motion to dismiss Goltes’ petition for child support – which was submitted in Los Angeles.
Doncic is moving for the petition to be declared invalid on the grounds that Goltes and their daughters – Gabriela, 2, and Olivia, 3 months – are not California residents.
Moreover, the Lakers star says he filed a family law action in their home nation of Slovenia last month.
Doncic accuses Goltes of knowing of this case in Slovenia, but choosing to file in California to ‘avail herself of the generous amounts of child support for which California is well-known.’
Doncic revealed he ‘recently made the tough decision to end my engagement’ with Goltes
Doncic, who scored 41 points against Brooklyn, will serve his suspension on Monday night
‘Luka has always provided for anything his daughters could need or want and will continue to do so,’ a spokesperson for Doncic said in a statement to People Magazine on Tuesday.
‘He will always fight to be with his daughters and give them the best life possible. Luka is seeking dismissal of this case simply because Slovenia, not California, is the appropriate forum for adjudication of this dispute.’
Earlier this month, Doncic revealed he ‘recently made the tough decision to end my engagement’ with Goltes just months after the birth of his second child.
‘I love my daughters more than anything and I’ve been doing everything I can for them to be with me in the US during the season,’ Doncic told ESPN.
‘But that hasn’t been possible, so I recently made the tough decision to end my engagement.
‘Everything I do is for my daughters’ happiness and I will always fight to be with them and give them the best life I can.’
Before Doncic announced the end of the engagement, Goltes had already filed a petition seeking an unspecified sum in child support with a California court. The motion also included a request to cover attorneys’ fees.
Doncic proposed to Goltes in July of 2023 near Bled Castle in Slovenia. The two met when they were children.
‘We met when we were 12 years old at the seaside in Croatia,’ Goltes said in a 2020 Instagram Q&A, via the New York Post.
‘Fun fact: We still have the same group of friends we had at that time. You keep the real ones, am I right?’
Doncic called the birth date of his first child ‘the happiest day of my life.’ He also missed multiple Lakers games this season as Goltes gave birth.
