There’s a whole lot of beef swirling around in the NBA right now. We’ve obviously got Draymond Green and Dillon Brooks. But now we also have…Fred VanVleet and Ben Taylor?
No, Ben Taylor isn’t a player you don’t know. He’s actually an official. And VanVleet called him out, personally, in an expletive-laden postgame rant after the Raptors’ loss to the Clippers on Wednesday.
VanVleet got hit with a technical foul in the 3rd quarter of the game against the Clippers. It obviously didn’t impact the game in a drastic way, but it tacked on to a Clippers run that gave LA an 8-point lead in the middle of the quarter.
VanVleet was clearly bothered by it. Bothered enough to let this rant ring off.
Fred VanVleet on tonight's officiating, and more.pic.twitter.com/lap57HXYJN
— Rob Perez (@WorldWideWob) March 9, 2023
“I don’t mind. I’ll take a fine — I don’t really care. Ben Taylor was [expletive] terrible tonight. I thought that, on most nights, a couple out of the 3 — there’s one or two [officials] — that [expletive] the game up. It’s been like that a couple of games in a row…We come out tonight, we’re competing really hard. I get a [expletive] tech. Changes the whole dynamic of the game…Most of the refs are trying hard…they’re pretty fair. They communicate well. But then you’ve got the other ones who just want to be [expletive]. And that just kind of [expletive] the game up. Nobody is coming to see that [expletive]. They’re coming to see the players.”
At least we know he doesn’t care about taking the fine here because, WHEW BOY, is Fred getting a fine for this one. It’s going to be a wild fine, too. Not only did he call out the officials — and one specifically in Ben Taylor — but y’all see all those [expletives] in the quote? Nah, man. Adam Silver is definitely not letting this rock.
He seems to think things are personal with Ben Taylor and, look, Taylor is just out there doing his job. VanVleet can be a bit of a hothead, too. He’s got 8 technical fouls and an ejection this season.
But someone on Reddit dug into VanVleet’s techs this season and, well, Ben Taylor has actually given him 5 of them.
Fact checked: 62.5% of Fred VanVleet’s techs this year were by Ben Taylor. https://t.co/4FHAVHhtJa pic.twitter.com/T7vPyOyUNG
— nanobot001 (@nan0bot001) March 9, 2023
Now, this doesn’t mean that Taylor doesn’t like VanVleet. But, in seeing this data, you can understand why VanVleet is frustrated. There seems to be something there.
Regardless, though, that fine is coming, Freddy. It’s going to be a doozy.
