Luka Doncic And Goga Bitadze Debate Whether They Threatened To Fuck Each Other’s Family Members In A Second Language
Of all possible beef pairings among NBA players, Luka Doncic vs. Goga Bitadze is one of the most likely of units to get into a scuffle. When Doncic is not racking up technical fouls for yelling at the referees, he is racking up technical fouls for talking impish trash to players, fans, and really anyone who looks at him funny. Bitadze, meanwhile, is a gleeful enforcer who also mixes it up with opponents when he senses any of his smaller teammates have been insulted. He also famously got into a fight with a Pacers assistant during a game in 2021, which was probably more on the coach, but still, this guy will beef.
Which is to say: it is not surprising that Doncic and Bitadze got into it on Saturday. Late in the third quarter, Bitadze fouled Doncic on the perimeter, sending him to the free-throw line and kicking off a shit-talking session. As they went down the court, Doncic got into the big Georgian’s face, prompting a double technical. This is Doncic’s 16th technical of the season, which triggers an automatic one-game suspension.
After Luke Kennard won it for the Lakers on a buzzer-beater, Doncic spoke to reporters, who asked him about the incident with Bitadze. He said the team was appealing to get the technical rescinded. The grounds for the appeal? Bitadze apparently crossed the line by threatening Doncic’s family. “I’m definitely hoping [it is rescinded],” Doncic said after the game. “Obviously, I let my team down getting that last tech. But honestly, I wasn’t trying to. He said at the free throw, he would fuck my whole family. And at some point, this is a basketball court. At some point, I just can’t stand it. I got to stand up for myself.” I will note here that Doncic is currently separated from his fiancée and the pair are involved in a transatlantic custody battle for their two daughters.
After Doncic’s comments started making the rounds, Bitadze spoke to reporters and denied Doncic’s version of events. “What he came out and said, I don’t think that’s the truth. I know that’s not the truth. I know what I said. … I apologize if it crossed the line,” he said. Per Bitadze, Doncic was in fact talking all crazy about various members of Bitadze’s family, and that he was just parroting Doncic’s own words back to him.
“I really respect everybody’s family,” Bitadze said. “Where I come from, it’s really sacred and we really respect each other’s families, and I would never directly say that.” He was asked exactly what was said, and he was not much more specific, “He said something about my mother, which, it’s really inappropriate. We don’t say that stuff during the game.”
While we know the general outlines of the trash talk here—various threats against mothers—there is some degree of uncertainty, which I think can be chalked up in large part to the fact that the exchange was conducted in Serbian, which is neither player’s first language. Doncic’s father has Serbian heritage, so he learned the language early, while Bitadze played in Serbia for a while before coming to the NBA. Bitadze is of course a native speaker of Georgian, which is a part of the isolate Kartvelian language family and has a unique alphabet. He spoke to The Athletic as a rookie about his trilingualism, saying he learned English by watching Transformers and Lord of the Rings, and that Serbian is a useful pan-Slavic language to know. “The thing is with Serbian, you can talk with a lot of people,” he said. “There’s like eight countries you can talk with Serbians. So like overseas, 90 percent of the people you can talk with. That’s really nice, I’m really happy that I know Serbian.”
I guess whichever guy started this knew the other spoke Serbian and was confident nobody else would understand them. If the NBA is going to determine whether or not Doncic is going to be allowed to play on Monday, they’ll have to spelunk into the poetic ravine.
