Luka Doncic Addresses Temper Tantrums as Locker Room Receives Clear Message

Reports of Luka Doncic being frustrated by his teammates ran rampant less than a week ago. According to NBA reporter Jeff Pagaduan, the Lakers star’s frustration “isn’t coming from a place of malice. Doncic simply wants to win, and he is very emotional in the way he carries himself, as has been the case throughout his career.” Up till that point, Team Slovenia had lost 6 of their 7 preparation games for EuroBasket 2025. Now, the team has also lost both of their first 2 main games. However, despite being in a worse situation than before, the Slovenian remains optimistic.

Luka Doncic participated in a presser after Team Slovenia’s 103-95 loss against Team France. He admitted his personal viewpoint about the team’s performance, stating that “Boys did a good job, everyone who stepped on the pitch gave their all. Like I said, France is a great team, unfortunately we lost, but now we have to learn something from this defeat. I know I lose my temper sometimes, but I try to help the team. I do it all out of good will, no one wants anything bad and I think we are getting better every day”.

Just like the previous games, Luka Doncic dominated on a personal level. Over the course of 34:55 minutes, he scored 39 points, 8 rebounds, and 9 assists. This effort helped Slovenia to tie with France at 83-83 with 4:00 left to go in the 4th quarter. However, after that, Team France collectively switched gears.

Alexandre Sarr reportedly put out a staunch defense. Meanwhile, Guerschon Yabusele and Elie Okobo delivered clutch plays on the offensive end, going on an 8-0 run to allow France to secure a 91-83 lead. Team France persisted until finally the squad won by an 8-point margin.

Except for Luka Doncic, only 2 other players scored in the double-digits. Additionally, the poor defense by Slovenia caused France to score 25 fast-break points and shoot 60% on 2-point shots. Sylvain Francisco took charge against Slovenia with his 32 points, 7 rebounds, and 5 assists.

Luka Doncic’s ‘lose my temper sometimes’ remark came after reports emerged of the Lakers star sharing “strong words” with his teammates after Team Slovenia’s final preparation game. The matchup was against Serbia, which had gone undefeated in the series. By the end of the game, Serbia had recorded a score of 106-72. Edo Muric, the former captain of the national team, addressed these rumors by stating that “I don’t like to talk about what’s going on in the team. Yes, we had a conversation. We cleared up a lot of things, and said what needed to be said”. Muric discussed Luka Doncic’s exchange of ‘strong words’ by stating that “This defeat actually brought us even closer”.

This time, Luka Doncic did not show any frustration. However, he did also send a message to the Slovenian squad’s locker room that “we have to learn something from this defeat”. It was one message that the 5x NBA All-Star gave out to his teammates, while he left another for the critics.

Luka Doncic Addressed Critics Who Questioned Team Slovenia’s Abilities: “We fight”

‘S.Sportal’ reporter Špela Lenart recently highlighted that the Slovenian basketball players were satisfied with the support from the stands. However, they have also reportedly been repeatedly warned that they are receiving a lot of negative energy from the outside. In fact, according to Lenart, this factor was most recently pointed out by Team Slovenia’s head coach, Aleksander Sekulić. However, no matter the chatter, Luka Doncic seems unbothered by it.

“What kind of criticism? We are fighting, we could be on the beaches and enjoying ourselves. I hope that as many people as possible support us, so more than anything else, thank you to those who support us” said the Los Angeles Lakers star.

Luka Doncic also looked to ensure that the criticism wouldn’t follow the team again after this recent loss. Therefore, he added that “We really fought, in the end we gave up a little in the last two or three minutes, but we gave it our all. France is really not an easy opponent, I told the guys that too, and we have to continue at that pace. We prepared well for the game, Francisco shot 1/23 in the warm-up games, now he has scored 30 points. Our opponents have an average of 105 points, which is too much. Now it’s important to keep winning, nothing else matters”.

As reported by ‘BasketNews’, the loss means Slovenia will need to regroup quickly as they continue their Group D campaign. Whether they are successful in doing so is something that remains to be seen.