BOSTON — For the first time in his career, Jaylen Brown was thrown out from a game. He said that he figured his first ejection would be because he got into an altercation or something, but it was instead because of an “overemotional referee.”
Brown was clearly not happy with the ejection as he went off on the referee after the game. But the Celtics still came away with the 133-123 win over the Knicks. The C’s kept their composure down the stretch as they improved to 16-5 on the season, though there was plenty to talk to after the game.
Here’s everything the Celtics said about the ejection:
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Jaylen Brown
On what happened…
“To be honest, I’m not sure. But I wish I would have gotten my money’s worth. I always thought my first career ejection would be something a little more exciting. Maybe a tussle with some, you know, 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 have gotten my (expletive) money’s worth.”
On the second technical…
“I don’t know. So 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 was on the bench, I’m talking from the sideline. He can’t even hear anything I’m saying.
“So he calls a tech from across the court. That for sure has to do with somebody having their emotions too involved in whatever else is going on. And they’re 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 it was (expletive).”
On if the ref speaking to him…
“After he called the first tech I wasn’t even talking to him. So I was talking to the other ref trying to explain my case. You can tell his emotions were involved and x, y, z, wanted to make it a back-and-forth. I’m explaining to the ref and he calls a second tech from the other side of the court, which is a clear example of somebody exercising their power to try to get somebody thrown out the game. I thought it was (expletive). It is what it is. We got the win.”
Joe Mazzulla
On Brown’s first technical foul..
“The ref told me that he gave him the first technical because Jaylen said, ‘Don’t call that weak-(expletive) (expletive).’ So he gave him a tech for that. I’ve been on the sidelines in the NBA for five years. I’ve seen players act and say things that are way more disrespectful than that.
On the second tech…
“I didn’t necessarily see what was happening on the second one. I got a clear explanation on the first one. I’m doing everything I can to not cost myself $25,000.”
Kristaps Porzingis
On the ejection…
“He got a little bit riled out with some calls. Everybody just needed to calm down. Both teams probably feel the same way. Like, you rarely hear somebody say something good about the refs. The refs always get all the blame. But it’s always for both teams feeling like, oh some ball should’ve gone our way. So I think we have to do a better job of maintaining our composure. JB, it doesn’t happen too often to him.
“It happens probably more to me than anybody else on this team. But we’re working on it. This is a part where we can grow. And yeah, we maintained our composure, the coaches too, and everybody stayed calm, and we just kept playing and didn’t really give them too much hope. They did get a little bit closer, but we were able to maintain that lead and just finish out the game.”
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