by Daniel Johnson
December 9, 2023
Jaylen Brown blames ‘overemotional ref.’
Boston Celtics shooting guard Jaylen Brown can expect a nice letter in the mail from the NBA after his post-game comments about an official. According to Yahoo Sports, Brown’s comments stemmed from an incident in the fourth quarter when a foul was called on Brown while trying to poke the ball out of New York Knicks guard Immanuel Quickley. Brown allegedly disagreed verbally with the call, primarily because he said a similar contact was not called a foul on the opposite end. For his protest, Brown received a technical foul from official Jason Goldenberg.
Brown apparently refused to let it go and had to be held back by Celtics center Kristaps Porziņģis along with an official and an assistant coach after he received a second technical foul, which resulted in an automatic ejection. Brown continued jawing at the official for a few moments before making his way to the locker room.
Post-game, Brown was still thinking about the referee interaction, telling reporters, “I wish I would have got my money’s worth. I always thought my first career ejection would be something a little more exciting. Maybe a tussle or something, guys get folded up, go to the ground. Not some overemotional ref who had a bad day. What I’m most upset about is I should’ve gotten my f***ing money’s worth.”
Upon being asked about what led to the second technical foul, Brown said he was not being disrespectful of Goldenberg, telling reporters, “I don’t know. I think it’s a difference between showing emotion and it being disrespectful or derogatory towards another person. I don’t think I was directing it towards him whatsoever, especially on the second one. It wasn’t even close. I’m on the bench, I’m talking from the sideline. He can’t even hear anything I’m saying. So he called a tech from across the court.”
Brown continued, assessing that the second technical foul may have had more to do with the official asserting power than anything he actually said, saying, “That’s for sure have to do with somebody having their emotions too involved in whatever else is going on and they accessing their power with technical fouls. I ain’t going to comment on officiating in general, but I am going to comment on this guy in particular tonight. I thought that was bulls—t.”
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