Slovenia Players, Coach Defend Luka Doncic Over FIBA World Cup Officiating

Mavs superstar Luka Doncic was ejected in Slovenia's loss to Canada at the 2023 FIBA World Cup. The team's head coach and players came to his defense.

MANILA, Philippines — During Slovenia's 100-89 loss to Canada in the FIBA World Cup Quarterfinals, Luka Doncic was ejected with 6:37 remaining in regulation. After a 50-50 tie at the half, Canada had pulled away after the break, but the focus of the game was heavily on officiating.

With Canada being a physical team with an aggressive approach, the Dallas Mavericks superstar was frequently voicing his frustrations with the officiating crew after receiving contact that went uncalled. He received two technical fouls with the final one being enough for automatic disqualification. 

"I think everybody know what my frustration was," Doncic said. "Playing for the national team, it's a lot of emotions. A lot of times I had control myself. I having problems with but you know, reference told one of the guys not going to call following him because he's coming at us. I think this is not fair.

"I know I complain a lot, but I don't think it's fair," Doncic explained. "They've been playing very physical with me, but if you say [what the official said], it's not fair."

Doncic acknowledged the need for improvement in how he voices his frustrations to the officials throughout games. Given the added passion and intensity that comes with competing for the national team in high stakes games, he stated it can be more challenging to keep emotions under control. 

"It starts with me and I have to be better for my team with all emotions," Doncic said. "Like I said, playing for the country, you want to do your best and you want to die on there. It starts with me for sure."

Slovenia coach Aleksander Sekulic came to Doncic's defense, stating that it's very difficult for a player to maintain composure when taking hits so frequently throughout a game. With Doncic having possession of the basketball so frequently and being a big guard that likes to attack the paint, he will naturally be placed in these situations more.

"it's difficult to play a game you get hit constantly, all game on," Sekulic said of Doncic. "It is 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 to look up and you get tired from this, it's very difficult.

"I don't know if you could be in this situation and to understand this, but it's very difficult," Sekulic explained to a reporter. "That's why the emotions come up. I know it's not great, it doesn't look good, but it's very, very difficult and that's why it makes Luka so special because he's a great player and it's tough to guard him in a legal way."

Klemen Prepelic, who finished with 22 points against Canada, was critical of how Doncic has been officiated at the World Cup. Between receiving a technical foul for jokingly from shooting a half-court against Australia, stating he doesn't understand the decision for the call. Prepelic called it "simply unacceptable" that Doncic was thrown out of the game against Canada with a second technical foul, resulting in automatic ejection. 

“I simply don’t understand why Luka, for example, got a technical foul against Australia for shooting from half-court as a joke," Prepelic told EuroHoops.net.  "They considered this a technical foul, and there’s a guy who, in the second minute of the game, put an elbow in the opponent’s face and received an intentional foul.

"Then, for 40 minutes, he engaged in trash-talking," Prepelic explained. "You know what he’s doing, and then, with two minutes to go, you give him a technical foul and throw him out of the game. That’s simply unacceptable."

Prepelic put into perspective how regardless of the ultimate outcome at the World Cup, for a nation of Slovenia's size, the team is "super happy" to have finished inside the top eight. 

“We are known as a very emotional team, and we have to control this, but we know how to compete this way," Prepelic said. "Sometimes we get results, sometimes not. At the end of the day, we are in the Top 8. We are Slovenia, a very small country, and we are super happy.”

When looking beyond officiating, Mike Tobey felt that Slovenia was unable to match the physicality that Canada played with. He views the loss as a learning experience and acknowledged a highly physical match isn't the style of game they tend to thrive playing. 

“It was a physical game, and we tried to play physically, but we weren’t able to match their physicality," Tobey said. "I don’t know, it’s not our favorite type of game; it’s going to be remembered as a bad memory, one that got away from us. However, at the same time, I think we can learn from it."

Slovenia will face Lithuania on Thursday as there remains a need for the top eight that made it to the quarterfinals to place. However, the two European teams that earned qualification for the 2024 Paris Olympics — Serbia and Germany — have already been decided.