Perth coach John Rillie has fired an off-script broadside at the NBL referees for not providing sufficient reward or protection for his superstar guard Bryce Cotton.
A short-priced favourite to secure his fourth league MVP and a near-certainty to take out his fifth scoring title, Cotton racked up 21 points and eight assists in the Wildcats' 103-91 victory over South East Melbourne at Melbourne's State Basketball Centre on Saturday night.
Cotton buried 8-of-8 free throws in his haul but Rillie was angered that the superstar import only drew those four shooting fouls throughout his 37-plus minutes on the court.
Rillie completed his post-match press conference by posing a query of his own, unprompted, to the reporters in attendance.
"I've got a question for someone in here - what does FD on the stat-sheet mean?" Rillie asked, before receiving the answer - fouls drawn.
"How many times the players were fouled? Okay.
"I grew up in the Andrew Gaze era - as a player we used to complain about how he got calls.
"But every team, top to bottom, had a hell of a scouting report for Andrew Gaze.
"So there was a level of frustration but he got rewarded because he was featured heavily."
"Bryce Cotton - four drawn fouls tonight."
The Phoenix were actually whistled for more fouls than Perth (22-16) while the Wildcats visited the charity stripe almost twice as many times (30-16).
And Cotton has led the NBL in free-throw attempts the past three seasons.
But Rillie appeared irked by the hands-fouls missed by the officials in favour of Cotton, who attacked the cup all evening, all while receiving a physical buffeting from Phoenix guards Ben Ayre and Owen Foxwell, particularly in the third quarter.
"I listen to every press conference, I read a lot of articles," Rillie continued.
"Tell me someone who doesn't have him (Cotton) at the top of the scouting report.
"And when he's aggressive ... four drown fouls. Unbelievable."
