Fred VanVleet was handed a hefty $30,000 fine after his expletive-laden tirade against NBA referee Ben Taylor after the Raptors’ loss to the Clippers on Wednesday.
VanVleet tried to breathe twice before turning to the reporters, but the guard couldn’t suppress his frustration with the referee and his team, even admitting that he would “take the fine” for his comments.
The player was extremely critical of Taylor after the Raptors’ 108-100 loss, not only for receiving a technical foul, but for the disparity of fouls and free throws. The NBA fined him $30,000 on Thursday for publicly criticizing the referee.
I don’t mind. I’ll take the fine. I don’t really care,’ VanVleet began before launching a composed, but expletive-laden tirade at his press conference.
“I thought Ben Taylor was fucking terrible tonight. I think most nights out of three there are one or two that fuck up the game. It’s been like that a couple of games in a row. Denver was tough, obviously.
WARNING: EXPLICIT LANGUAGE
Toronto Raptors star Fred VanVleet was fined $30,000 for publicly criticizing an official
VanVleet called out referee Ben Taylor for being ‘fucking terrible’ in his post-game comments
“You came out tonight, racing pretty hard and I got some bull tech that changes the whole dynamic of the game, it changed the whole flow of the game.”
VanVleet, who is in his sixth year in the NBA, was called for his eighth technical of the season with 7:02 remaining in the third quarter. Paul George made the free throw to put the Clippers up 65-57.
VanVleet said the reason he picked up the technique was because he was imploring his team to play what he thought were some questionable calls, albeit in more colorful language.
He also said he understood there’s a fine line in what he can say, but he thought Taylor didn’t give him enough leeway.
Toronto was fouled 23 to Los Angeles’ 18, but the Clippers were 24-of-31 from the line while the Raptors were 13-of-14.
“We weren’t getting our money’s worth on a lot of those,” Raptors coach Nick Nurse said of the fouls. Probably a little contact. We didn’t adjust (to the style of play) because we were back in the same situation.’
VanVleet and the Raptors were already in a bad mood from umpiring before Wednesday’s game. They lost Monday night in Denver 118-113 after Scottie Barnes was ejected for Scott Foster with 28.3 seconds remaining and the Raptors trailing by one.
The technique came after Toronto’s Jakob Poeltl was called for a foul. Denver made the ensuing three free throws to ice the game.
Of VanVleet’s eight techniques, three have been evaluated by Taylor and another came from another official in a game Taylor was working on. Taylor is in his 10th season as an NBA official.
“At a certain point, as a player, you feel like it’s personal and it’s never a good place to be,” VanVleet said. “That’s not why we lost tonight, we got beat, but it definitely makes it harder to beat.”
VanVleet already faced a $3,000 fine for the technician. He will face a bigger one for leaving office.
NBA official Ben Taylor was verbally eviscerated and accused that his decisions were ‘personal’
“I think the jurisdiction and the power trip we’ve been on this year with some of our officials in this league is getting out of hand and I’m going to take my ticket for talking about it,” VanVleet said.
‘Most refs try really hard, I like a lot of the refs, they try really hard, they’re pretty fair and they communicate well.
‘And then you have the others who just want to be (idiots) and just (ruin) the game. And no one comes to see that. They come to see the players.
“And I think we’re losing a little bit of the structure of what the NBA is and was, and it’s been disappointing this season.”