“Racism and hate are never acceptable”: Nicolas Batum goes off on Luka Doncic’s fans while shielding Sylvain Francisco

Nicolas Batum has slammed Luka Doncic’s Slovenian fans for expressing hate toward French player Sylvain Francisco, who made a late basket after shaking hands with Doncic. France beat Slovenia in the EuroBasket match, but what angered Doncic’s fans even more was that after Francisco and Doncic shook hands, Francisco went on to make a basket as the Slovenian players were leaving the court.

Nicolas Batum blasts Luka Doncic’s fans, praises Sylvain Francisco

Former French basketball player Nicolas Batum took to X to speak up in defense of his countryman, Sylvain Francisco. He said even if fans disagree with his actions, racism and hate cannot be acceptable. He tweeted: “Some of y’all are SICK even if you disagree with a BASKETBALL play, racism and hate are NEVER ACCEPTABLE at all. After Dennis Schroder earlier, now this… Major props to Sylvain, great game brother. Keep shining and making us proud.

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Agreeing with Nicolas, one of his fans responded, “Notice how 2-3 people simply spammed. Small coins can make a lot of noise inside a vase, sadly. Shame on them.”A reaction from the Celtics France handle read, “Bravo Nicolas, let's not remain blind to what some players may endure, this kind of thing has absolutely no place in sports and in life in general.”

Another said, “We agree that this is unacceptable and inadmissible.

On the other hand, his basket at the last second, even if it follows a sporting logic, goes against fair play and it's very regrettable.”Doubting if the comments were actually made by Doncic’s fans, an X user also said, “We're not even sure that there are humans behind the screens... Twitter has become the stronghold of international fascism, that's all, it's sad but we have to get out of there, let them spew their bullshit to each other.”One more commented, “Thank you Nicolas for raising your voice. What we see on social media is unacceptable. It's worse than shame itself. I am disheartened.”

Sylvain Francisco apologized to Luka Doncic

Luka Doncic shared his disbelief at Sylvain Francisco’s action. He told the media via BasketNews, “At the end we shook hands. The point difference can be important, but we shook hands. I didn’t think he’d go and score again.”Francisco later revealed that he had apologized to Doncic for his unexpected late basket.

He said, “I said I was sorry. I actually went to shake hands and go to the layup like I said to Luka. The only thing that I really regret is just shaking hands — I should have told him, ‘Nah, play defense,’ because I was going for a tie. You know, we’ve got point differential, which is really important in EuroBasket, and that’s why it just clicked in my head.

At the end of the day, I would never do that, but I take full responsibility for it, and I just gotta move forward.”Also Read: Kevin Durant brutally mocks ‘NBA historian’ over Luka Doncic-Sylvain Francisco EuroBasket commentaryFrancisco’s move was regarded as disrespectful on the internet, and Luka Doncic’s fans shared their hate for him on social media. However, Francisco’s move was still justified by some as point differential is an important aspect in EuroBasket, even if a team wins a particular game.