Luka Doncic earns ire of Yaxel Lendeborg: 'I lost all respect'

Golden State Warriors forward Yaxel Lendeborg. IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Lakers' Luka Doncic earns ire of Warriors rookie Yaxel Lendeborg: 'I lost all respect'

By Ty Bronicel | Last updated Oct 22, 2026 9:13 AM ET

Los Angeles Lakers star Luka Doncic has gotten under the skin of many NBA players during his eight-year NBA career.

It took only one game for Golden State Warriors' rookie Yaxel Lendeborg to get a taste of Doncic's style of play and on-court behavior and not like it.

Lendeborg and Doncic engaged in trash talk throughout the Lakers' 127-105 rout of the Warriors.

Lendeborg guarded Doncic most of the night and received a technical foul with 22.4 seconds left in the second quarter.

Afterward, Lendeborg had this to say about Doncic.

Yaxel Lendeborg on Luka Doncic: “Watching all the whining and complaining, I lost all respect.” https://t.co/X8s5qaKA2n
— Melissa Rohlin (@melissarohlin) October 22, 2026

"That was awful," Lendeborg said of getting his first NBA technical. 'Me getting frustrated, it's not about the foul being called, it's about (Doncic) complaining the entire game."

Yaxel Lendeborg's introduction to the NBA

Yaxel Lendeborg on what he and Luka Doncic were going back and forth about: “I was telling him he sucks. He can’t score on me. You talking, you can’t score on me. I said it the whole game. I said a couple cuss words obviously, you know, 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, and his only bucket was a banker from half court. Like, I know that it’s a team sport. He had 28 on us as a team. Me, I took my matchup personally. Tried not to get caught on the fouls. Tried my best. I was thinking about playing him with my hands behind my back to see if that worked. Probably would have still got a foul call. But, you know, interesting.”
— aly ✶ (@jinthirty) October 22, 2026

According to ESPN, Lendeborg could be seen calling Doncic's move "weak ass s---" as Doncic laughed and clapped and a crowd of officials and players kept them separated.

"You get the foul call. Congratulations, bro," Lendeborg said. "Then you talk to me like you did something great. C'mon, dog. That s--- is weak. It kind of threw me off because I have so much respect for him. Gone, man. Gone."

"I was telling Doncic he sucks. He can't score on me. You talk but you can't score on me. I said it the whole game. I said a couple cuss words, obviously. That's why I got the technical. But I was letting him know."

ESPN's tracking stats showed Lendeborg limited Doncic to 1-of-6 shooting when he was the primary defender.

"He was talking crazy," Doncic said. "But I wasn't trying to talk back. This season, I'm not trying to get techs."

The two teams meet again on Oct. 30.

That should be interesting.

Ty Bronicel

Ty Bronicel is a veteran sports writer/editor/blogger with over 30 years of experience creating web content and has worked for world-renowned companies such as MSN, Yahoo, USA Today, and ESPN. He graduated from the University of Utah (Go Utes!) and is a Salt Lake City native who currently lives in the Beehive State. His expertise is movies and streaming shows, college football, NBA, and college basketball

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