A decision by the NBA to fine but not suspend one of its coaches has brought about a strong rebuke from its referees.
The National Basketball Referees Association openly criticized the league’s decision to dock Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer $25,000 for making “incidental contact” with referee Ben Taylor during his team’s 109-97 loss to the Cavaliers on Saturday.
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“Referees operate in an environment in which an influential NBA team owner has repeatedly mocked the efficacy of fines as means to change bad behavior,” NBRA general counsel Lee Seham said in a statement Monday. “Recent League precedent dictated that a coach who aggressively charged onto the floor during live action and physically interfered with a Referee would be suspended.
“We are now operating at a lower level with less transparency, degraded safety, and diminished respect for the Game. Coaches should compete by creating better teams, not by physically intimidating officials.”
Budenholzer told the Atlanta-Journal Constitution the contact was incidental.
"I was very close to (Taylor)," Budenholzer told the newspaper. "That seems like that could be the reason why he threw me out after just a single technical. If there was any contact it would be totally unintentional. If there is contact, I'm sure that's why he made the judgment call that he did."