The NBA announced (Twitter link) that it has fined Raptors point guard Fred VanVleet after he took umbrage with the work of referee Ben Taylor following a loss to the Clippers on Wednesday.
VanVleet will be docked to the tune of $30K for his criticisms, per the NBA statement.
During the 108-100 defeat, Los Angeles shot 17 more free throws than Toronto. Taylor whistled VanVleet for a technical foul during the contest’s third quarter.
In his postgame remarks, VanVleet acknowledged that he would most likely incur a fine before launching into his criticisms of Taylor’s officiating and that of the other attendant referees in general. VanVleet observed that several of his technical fouls this season (five of eight, to be precise), transpired during games Taylor was officiating.
VanVleet alternately called the fouls “bulls—” and “personal” during his remarks, and singled out Taylor as being “f—ing terrible” on Wednesday.
The 6’1″ vet, 29, has been enjoying a solid year for the 32-34 Raptors, technical fouls aside. He’s averaging 19.3 PPG on .391/.341/.899 shooting splits, 6.9 APG, 4.3 RPG and 1.6 SPG in 55 games this season, all starts.
Big fan
30 thousand well spent
30K well spent
I’ve always said never trust a man w two last names that goes double when neither of his last names is a last name
League has to do something about the officiating. There should be a review for officials and if anything is questionable the officials should receive a fine or something equivalent. Doesn’t say much when the league will fine players but let bad officiating continue
I think they should have a premier league system where every ref is graded on how well they make calls.
At the end of the season the best refs stay, and the low performers are sent to the g league, and the low low performers are sent to an island prison where there’s only enough bread for fifty men, and every day they must fight the others just to survive, and they never see their families again.
Literal lol
Refs should pay it.
Now fine the refs for bull s*** calls
Refs are trash and NBA knows it. That’s why they need to create rules to silence criticism. If they were good, they wouldn’t be afraid of criticism.
Football and baseball too. If a player wants to call out the refs, let the fans and media determine whether it’s justified or not
Would have been more $ if he hadn’t been telling the truth
30k for telling the truth. Not bad.
This gives other players the green light to do the same. Let’s hope more choose that route, and we begin to see a decline in the egomania of these refs.