Jazz star Donovan Mitchell has been fined $25K for his public criticism of officials and his conduct upon leaving the court after being ejected on Wednesday, the NBA announced today in a press release.
As we previously detailed, Mitchell blasted the officiating after Wednesday’s loss to the Sixers, which saw him ejected in overtime when he picked up a pair of technical fouls. He knocked over Utah’s water cooler on his way off the floor (video link).
“We won this game in my personal opinion… It’s getting f—ing ridiculous,” Mitchell said post-game.
In addition to Mitchell, teammate Rudy Gobert was hit with a $20K fine of his own, per the NBA. Gobert, like Mitchell, is being disciplined for his public criticism of the officiating, which he said was “disrespectful” to the Jazz.
To be 100% fair
NBA should also declare that Refs made mistakes by making bad calls
The bad calls led to the results
The starting point is the bad calls
NBA has never had any double standard?
They would need to admit it both ways though…that is how this works. There are usually and were here multiple mistakes made in both teams favor in just the last 2 minutes alone:
L2M report:
– Embiid should have had 2 FTs at 1:14 left in 4th
– Should have been a Jazz TO with 1:03 left
– Simmons kick ball 1 min left
– Mitchell should have had 2 FTs with 40s left
– Should have been a Harris TO with 1:02 left in OT
– Gobert 3s second call on same possession.
And if we are going to dissect every call especially the one where Mitchell hooked Ben trying to get a foul call that turns out to be on him for booking we would also need to look at his hip thrust that should have been a foul on him.
link to mobile.twitter.com
Also let’s start calling Embids flops
When youre in first place, you got there via calls going YOUR way. To complain like this is going to win the Jazz no favors from anyone, and Covid Goebbert just needs to shut up entirely forever.
Draymond getting 2 T’s to literally lose the game by himself for his team is much worse officiating than this.
Draymond picked up a tech and then would not shut up and picked up a another one. You can maybe blame the refs for the first one, but the second one is all Dray.
Foul calls go their way?— Or maybe they’re just good. A number of teams are better than GSW.
You really believe the Utah Jazz are in first place cause of refs help
Utah Jazz have always been screwed over going back to Malone and Stockton days.
Not just by refs , but players refusing to player in Utah when traded to Utah. Why would you not want to play on a team that wins 50 plus games year after year
Explain why Jerry Sloan never won coach of the year never
So apparently it’s okay when the NBA tells players to just “shut up and dribble.”
It’s ridiculous to force players to go to press conferences and then fine them for saying something the league doesn’t agree with.
Refs screw EVERY single team though, to act otherwise is just wasting everyones time.
And what would your thoughts be if referees went public with the things players said to them? Respect And etiquette goes both ways ya know.
If the NBA forced the refs to have press conferences, I would not want them to be fined for sharing their thoughts either.
You understand they are forcing the players to do press conferences to increase exposure, boosting marketing? It’s in the players’ interest to get a marketing boost. That said, it’s unpleasant work for most players, hence why their hand is forced to sometimes tell them to shut up and sell the game.
The whole industry revolves around selling the game. So when a player shows lack of respect for the work going in to make the games as great as they can be for public consumption, you see push back in form of fines.
Finally, I’m certain refs understand how despised they are. People will adore players, but at best tolerate refs. If there was a ref who had enough charisma to handle public scrutiny like that, the league would do well to put him in front of the media. Unfortunately there certainly aren’t enough like that to sell the game in every crew, nor handle the scrutiny. As we all understand, refs really do suck in general.
These refs are soft!
Yes I do understand the marketing aspect, but player’s should not be forced to do them. From a marketing perspective, wouldn’t it look better for the league to have contented players that want to be at the press conference instead of sullen players that everyone knows doesn’t want to be there.
Besides, the NBA doesn’t need press conferences to gain exposure. Most fans don’t even pay attention to those things. And I would bet that there are hardly any people that are unaware of the NBA watching them.
A simple sit down discussion between players and refs needs to happen. Better player/referee relations. Nobody watches games to see the ref dictate the outcome!
I guess when the Lakers are on TNT for the 50th straight day and all the announcers talk about is BRON, BRON and when he whines and then suddenly a foul gets called to his liking, when the NBA cleans up all that then they should start fining players. The NBA is its own worst enemy and frankly seeing BRON , BRON love fest daily makes me tune out the rest of the NBA. ICONIC or not his act and their continuing Butt Kissing of him has worn old.