Sydney Kings coach ejected and Kouat Noi’s nose busted in wild finish to NBL semi-final

Sydney Kings manager Chase Buford escaped suspension for the NBL grand final qualifying decider against Cairns on Sunday after a bloody and foul-mouthed finish to their semi-final on Friday.

Throughout the NBL season, the Kings have been the team to beat and an almost unbeatable favorite to win the 2021/22 NBL crown again.

Now a moment of madness has put all of that in jeopardy, with two key players injured and the coach on his last warning with the NBL.

Buford continued to spray officials as he walked off the pitch following his sending off in Cairns on Friday night.

Cairns forced a third and decisive game in their semi-final series with a 93-82 upset victory in far north Queensland and the tension boiled over with about two minutes to go.

As Cairns import DJ Hogg attacked with the ball, Kings player Kouat Noi reached in and there was a head butt, leaving Koi face down on the ground with a bloody nose.

Instead of calling the foul on the range, referee Chris Reid declared that Noi had missed or faked the collision.

That resulted in Kings coach Chase Buford storming the court to abuse the referee.

‘Let me talk to you for a moment. How the hell was that a fail warning? He’s bleeding. You missed it. Admit it, admit it. I’ll leave when you… you screwed it up’

Buford then stormed onto the touchline to talk to his players and check on Noi’s well-being, but his brain explosion wasn’t over yet.

Once again, he stopped the refs and continued his foul-mouthed spray: “Now he’s got a bloody broken nose and a failure warning.”

Noi falls to the ground after a headbutt with Hogg. Umpire Chris Reid can be seen calling a technical foul for a flop

Noi remained on the pitch, bleeding from his nose and receiving medical attention as his coach protested to the referees.

The Buford completely lost control and launched an inaudible attack that pushed the referees’ patience too far, resulting in a double technical foul and ejection from the game.

‘How long is this going to be allowed to happen?’ asked commentator Jack Heverin.

‘There is a line, therefore there is a line.’

“He wants them to throw it away, they threw it away,” said fellow commentator Liam Santamaría.

Buford also received two code of conduct warnings in the series finale last season and attended anger management in the offseason.

“What I said was totally out of line, just an immature, emotional reaction to a play,” Buford said today.

I have to stop getting involved in personal battles with officials.

Andrew Gaze, considered the greatest Australian basketball player of all time, said the whole situation could have been avoided if the right decision had been made in the first place.

“Call the reach at fault, so you don’t need to call the flop,” he said.

‘(Noi’s) left arm comes out, a lot of contact, clash of heads. There was the fault.

‘Instead, explode into this.’

Sydney Kings player Tim Soares appears to make head contact with Cairns Taipans player Sam Waardenburg in their NBL semi-final match in Cairns on Friday night.

The Kings’ Xavier Cooks sits on the bench injured after leaving the game in the third quarter. He is in great doubt for the deciding third match in Sydney on Sunday.

Noi will now be in doubt for Sunday’s decider at Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney along with league MVP Xavier Cooks (ankle). Adding insult to injury, Cooks was also awarded $2000 for violating the NBL’s code of conduct.

Later in the match, player Tim Soares further escalated the incident.

With just two minutes remaining, Soares committed his fifth foul after an off-the-ball contact with Cairns’ Sam Waardenburg in which he appeared to make head contact.

“Thanks to Cairns, we got our butts kicked,” Buford said after the game.

‘From the initial forecast they played with more juice, they played desperately as if their season was on the line and we didn’t match them.

“That’s super disappointing.”