His Fined $50,000 Due to His ‘Aggressive’ Attack and Publicly Criticizing NBA Officials
The NBA fined Mike Brown for criticizing the referees during the game and in the press conference right after.
Everything started two days ago in a contest between the Sacramento Kings and Milwaukee Bucks.
The Kings coach was viewed as out of line as he invaded the court and yelled at the referee assigned, Intae Hwang. Kings players had to hold Brown back in the fourth quarter due to how aggressive he was.
This led to the coach’s untimely ejection.
In the end, the Kings faced an overtime loss to the Bucks with a score of 143-142.
This incident, however, isn’t the sole reason why the NBA gave him a fine. Brown was so furious that he harshly criticized the officials in the postgame press conference. He whipped out his laptop and showed a presentation and relevant clips to prove his point.
“The referees are human, and they’re going to make mistakes, but you just hope that there’s some sort of consistency and there’s some sort of communication between the refs. The refs tonight, they were great, they communicated with me all night. But in terms of consistency, you guys saw it right here. In my opinion, the consistency wasn’t here tonight.”
Mike Brown
As a result, Joe Dumers, head of basketball operations for the league, issued a penalty due to Brown “aggressively pursuing a game official during live play, and for publicly criticizing the officiating.”
Punished for Criticizing NBA referees
Brown then shared with the media that he had to cancel his family’s Tahoe vacation plans due to the $50,000 fine.
On a similar note, Toronto Raptors head coach Darko Rajaković also received a fine of $25,000 for publicly criticizing officials. He showed his frustration by smashing his fists on the table and calling the referees shameful.
This was more extreme compared to Brown’s calm demeanor in the interview, albeit he used a laptop as a prop.
Sources said that Brown focused on two plays. One was during the third quarter when Bucks player Damian Lillard made a foul shot behind the three-point line.
Another play was during the fourth quarter when Cameron Payne hooked De’Aaron Fox, but the referees didn’t call a foul.
