AP
Yaxel Lendeborg has only played one NBA game, yet he’s already started a feisty feud with Luka Doncic. The Golden State Warriors rookie began his career Wednesday night by refusing to back down from the reigning NBA scoring champion, who punctuated their prolonged on-court exchange of trash talk by making a spectacular half-court shot in Lendeborg’s face at the halftime buzzer.
Doncic also won this fight decisively on the scoreboard when the Los Angeles Lakers blew out Lendeborg and the Warriors 127-105, with Doncic scoring 28 points in just three quarters.
Yet Lendeborg somehow wasn’t finished talking: He called out the six-time All-Star as a complainer and a free-throw merchant during his postgame news conference.
“I lost all respect (for Doncic), man,” Lendeborg said. “That was awful. … A lot of flopping, a lot of foul-baiting, a lot of praying to the ref, man. Interesting first game for me, for sure.”
The Warriors’ 24-year-old rookie first-round pick said he sparred with Doncic on the court because of the Slovenian superstar’s constant complaining to the officials – admittedly a common feature of most games in Doncic’s nine-year career.
Lendeborg, who won an NCAA title with Michigan last season, said he enjoyed watching highlights of Doncic’s electric scoring performances in the past – but he has a more jaded perspective on Doncic’s skills now.
“Me getting frustrated, it´s not about the foul being called,” Lendeborg said. “It´s about him complaining the entire game, and then you get the foul call, and congratulations, bro. And then you talk to me like you did something great? Bro, come on. That´s just weak, you know? It kind of threw me off for a little while, because like I said, I had so much respect for him. Gone, man. Gone.”
Lendeborg and Doncic exchanged insults for much of the second quarter, with Lendeborg being whistled for a technical foul after saying something so loud and profane it caught the officials’ attention. “I was telling him he sucks,” Lendeborg said with a smile. “`You can´t score on me.´ I said it the whole game. I said a couple of cuss words, obviously. That´s why I got the technical and all that, but I was letting him know, because he was laughing and talking, all this because of that one foul call.”
Doncic mostly laughed off Lendeborg’s provocations, but the Lakers star obviously thrives amid confrontation. He was whistled for 16 technical fouls last season, earning a one-game suspension for exceeding the single-season limit.
“He was talking crazy, but I wasn´t trying to talk back this season,” Doncic said of Lendeborg.