Luka Doncic isn’t above playing a little gamesmanship, but against the Clippers he did it in the grossest way imaginable. James Harden was shooting free throws in a close battle when Luka picked up the ball, rubbed his head sweat all over it, and tossed it to the referee. She was not pleased.
Luka Doncic rubbed his sweat all over the ball and grossed out the ref so badly
Nobody like his sweaty ball.
James Dator has been covering a wide range of sports for SB Nation for over a decade, with a special focus on the NFL.
It’s unclear whether Doncic’s intent was to hope a sweaty, slippery ball was given to Harden for his second shot — or if he just hoped to slow everything down a little so the Lakers could regain their composure, but it didn’t work. Doncic was called for a delay of game penalty as the ref kicked the ball over to the sideline to get it dried off with a towel, refusing to touch Luka’s gross ball.
Unquestionably the funniest part of this is hearing LeBron yell in the background “HE DID WHAT?!” utterly incapable of understanding the whole sweaty ball routine. Who knows whether it actually helped or not. The Lakers went on to win 108-102, and Luka went off for 29 points, 9 assists, 6 boards — and one sweaty ball.
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