Knicks Star Blames Luka Doncic’s Behavior For Ugly Fight In Slovenia’s Tough Loss To France

The recent EuroBasket 2025 matchup between Team Slovenia and Team France ended on a dramatic note. Once the score was 101-92 in France’s favor, with just a few seconds remaining in the 4th quarter, both teams knew Slovenia couldn’t recover. Therefore, Luka Doncic called in the result early by shaking hands with the rival team’s players. Soon after that, however, Sylvain Francisco went for a successful layup, which ignited boos from the crowd and almost ignited a heated fight between players of both teams. As it turns out, Yabusele stood behind his teammate, believing that Luka Doncic ‘motivated’ that layup.

The official X account of ‘New York Basketball’ recently highlighted the remarks of both Luka Doncic and Guerschon Yabusele after the dramatic incident. Luka Doncic had reportedly said that “At the end we shook hands. The point difference can be important, but we shook hands. I didn’t think he’d go & score again”. In a stark contrast, Yabusele called out the Lakers star on his thought process by stating, “Every basket counts. Luka’s mistake of wanting to shake hands when it should be up to the offense”.

Sylvain Francisco stood out as the offensive firepower for Team France during the recent matchup. Over the course of 25:51 minutes on the court, he recorded 32 points, 5 rebounds, and 7 assists. He shot 12-12 from the free throw line and recorded an efficiency rating of 40. However, as NBA reporter Julian Ojeda said, “The incident overshadowed what had been a strong performance from Francisco”. Judging from his recent remarks, the 27-year-old has some regrets over his actions.

“I said I was sorry. I actually went to shake hands & go to the layup like I said to Luka. The only thing that I really regret is just shaking hands — I should have told him, ‘Nah, play defense,’ because I was going for a tie” said Francisco, as reported by ‘BasketNews’. “We’ve got point differential, which is really important in EuroBasket, and that’s why it just clicked in my head…At the end of the day, I would never do that, but I take full responsibility for it, and I just gotta move forward”.

In a way, Luka Doncic should have seen this coming. After all, if Guerschon Yabusele made one thing clear, it was that he wasn’t going to go easy on the Slovenian.

Guerschon Yabusele Indirectly Warned Luka Doncic About Getting Competitive: “make sure he doesn’t feel like I’m his fan”

A few days before the Slovenia-France matchup, Guerschon Yabusele sat down for an interview with FIBA Media. During the Q&A session, Yabusele brought up Luka Doncic’s prowess, including the latter’s time with Real Madrid. According to the New York Knicks player, “What he brings to the court says a lot about him”. However, while others admired the Lakers’ star because of this, Yabusele took the respect he holds for the Slovenian to further improve his own game.

“We’re going to play him at the tournament, he’s in our group. I’ll make sure he doesn’t feel like I’m his fan” said Yabusele. “But I respect his game. It’ll be a great game. Great player”.

Along with these remarks about Luka Doncic, Yabusele had also spoken about the impact of EuroBasket. He stated that “It’s the most competitive competition in terms of pure basketball. And especially this year, it’s going to be the best we’ve ever seen because every team is bringing its best players. Everybody is going there to try to win the gold. We’ll see some of the best basketball ever.”

When looking at these two remarks, there is no mistaking Yabusele’s competitive spirit. From the looks of it, the same rubbed off on his teammates, especially Sylvain Francisco. In light of this incident, one can presume that Luka Doncic will be more careful going forward and not be off his guard until the final seconds close out in a game.