What was the official reasoning given by the officials for Jaylen Brown’s ejection vs. the New York Knicks Friday? In a recent Pool Report interview conducted by Adam Himmelsbach of the Boston Globe, crew chief Mark Lindsay shed light on the circumstances that led to Jaylen Brown receiving two technical fouls during the Knicks’ loss to the Boston Celtics.
“The first technical foul was called for use of profanity toward a game official,” said the crew chief; Lindsay did not elaborate on the specific words used, but Brown’s choice of language towards the official crossed a threshold that warranted a technical foul in the eyes of officials.
“I’ve been on the sidelines in the NBA for five years, and I’ve seen players act and say things that are way more disrespectful than that,” observed Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla on learning the official reasoning.
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“The second technical foul was called for a wave off directed at the official which under the respect of the game guidelines is considered an overt gesture and an unsportsmanlike act,” said Lindsay about the rationale for Brown’s second, ejecting technical foul — the first of his career.
Brown disputed this account postgame, claiming the referee in question made the call “from the other side of the court” which the NBPA VP characterized as “a clear example of somebody exercising their power to try to get somebody thrown out of the game.”
While the latter half of Brown’s claim is a subjective one, it did take most by surprise — and was called from a considerable distance, lending credence to those who felt the ejection was unwarranted.
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