It took the NBA more than a week to decide on a proper punishment for Sacramento Kings guard Dennis Schroder after he was involved in a physical altercation with Los Angeles Lakers star Luka Doncic.
The incident happened following a 128-101 Lakers win back on Dec. 28 at Crypto.com Arena, which resulted in a three-game suspension for Schroder.
Now, fans have a little more insight into what actually went down between the two players thanks to ESPN's Shams Charania.
"Dennis Schroder essentially camped out, waited for Luka Doncic in the back hallways of Crypto.com Arena, and when he saw him and had somewhat of an alone moment, he confronted him," Charania stated. "He attempted to swing on him and strike him with his hand. The league concluded that it was an attempt to, that he didn't actually strike Luka Doncic in the face or upper-body area.
"So, why did Dennis Schroder go about this path? My understanding is that Luka Doncic had been calling him the B-word for the last few games, even going back to the offseason when they played each other in Olympic play."
According to Charania, the tension between Doncic and Schroder had been mounting for months.
Doncic reportedly taunted Schroder for turning down a four-year, $84 million contract from the Lakers back in 2021, yelling "should've signed that contract, baby!" at him on the court.
Schroder had seemingly reached his breaking point when Doncic began to personally insult him.
"Dennis Schorder's point is, ‘If you're going to call me the B-word on the court, you have to expect that I'm not going to just take that lightly off the court, and I'm just not going to let this go like it never happened,'" Charania added. "And we saw that take place. The three-game suspension, no coincidence we saw that take place right before these two teams play."
Newsweek