Clippers head coach Tyronn Lue has been fined $35K for public criticism of the officiating and questioning the integrity of game officials, the NBA announced today in a press release (Twitter link).
Lue’s comments occurred after the Clippers’ 130-125 victory over the Warriors in Golden State on Wednesday. Cameras captured him outside L.A.’s locker room greeting his players by shouting, “Where the refs at now? Cheating. That’s all they be doing” (Twitter video link).
Lue had been ejected from the game early in the fourth quarter when he received a pair of technical fouls less than a minute apart for arguing foul calls. The Clippers trailed by a score of 103-94 at the time of his ejection, but came back for the victory.
A handful of NBA head coaches – including Mike Brown, Taylor Jenkins, Ime Udoka, and Darko Rajakovic – have been fined this season for criticizing the officiating after games.
Unlike those other coaches, Lue didn’t air his complaints to reporters during a postgame media session, but given that he was caught on camera, the league felt it couldn’t turn a blind eye to his “cheating” comment.
Any coach fined been wrong in criticism of officials?
Lue was, considering his team shot over 2x the free throws that GSW did (37-18) in a 5 pt game
Truth hurts…
The NBA needs to stop hiding behind tradition and move with times and have 3 video refs in each arena making sure the calls are correct…
The weird part of it is his team shot twice as many free throws as the warriors so why was he complaining? Be Curry who only had 2 FT and was driving the ball inside. Kuming had 1 FT in 12 drives to the basket.
The league is out to get the Warriors, plain and simple.
Curry is the one all star that rarely gets the marginal contact calls that other players get.
The NBA has a problem with its officiating, which I believe it will at some point need to address. As usual, though, Lueless’ self-serving nonsense isn’t helpful to the cause. Nobody’s cheating. Ineptness is on the table, but probably not as likely a culprit as the league’s constant tinkering with the (unofficial) rulebook.
Refs have been suspect but it’s a bad look to complain about the refs when your team shoots 35 free throws to the other team’s 18. Sorry Ty Lue but you look silly right now
I didn’t see this particular game so can’t comment on the specifics of it but the refs in general this year have been awful. The technical fouls and ejections for nothing have been out of control. Fans who go to those games where the star players are being ejected for daring to show a little enthusiasm after a bucket or whatever should get a full refund. That’s part of the game and fans want to see that not power-hungry refs. I’m curious if this will be the first ever all star game where they start calling techs because they think someone dunked too hard. smh
Watching the game both teams were complaining. the weird part of it Lue got the 2nd T after his player did a obvious flagrant 1 by hitting the warrior player 3 times for no reason. .
“That’s all they be doing”? I’m sorry. I can’t take that seriously.
These are our heroes.
$35k for bad grammar
Warriors even looking for contact and can’t get the call. I get no FTs when they settle for jump shots but that’s not the them right now. They are being aggressive and 3 of the ticky tacky foul masters are on the floor for LA. Refs helped him more than he knows
Any fine for calling out the NBA’s corrupt WWE refereeing model should be worn as a badge of honor.
The nba has a HUGE ref problem
They all need to be removed and replaced with robots
A couple of things Lue might need to think about…
1) If you think the refs were unfair to your team during a win when you shot a LOT more free throws than your opponent, just wait and see what may come…
2) Once you were tossed out of the game, your team turned a nine point deficit into a five point victory…