BOSTON — Jayson Tatum said he wasn’t necessarily furious or mad as he was ejected in the Celtics’ win over the 76ers. There were certainly complaints late in the third quarter, which is why not one but two officials gave him the technical foul signal and threw him out.
Still, he was ejected with 1.1 seconds left in the third quarter of Friday’s game, just the second time in his career he was thrown out early. It wasn’t because he said anything offensive or inflammatory, he said. If anything, he said he doesn’t think he got his money’s worth from the ejection. It’s why Tatum said he didn’t think the ejection was warranted.
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“I was extremely surprised,” Tatum said. “Y’all all saw what happened. You might not know what I said, but I mean, I guess whatever I said doesn’t matter at this point. I don’t agree with that. One of the assistant coaches who was there with me doesn’t agree. But it doesn’t really matter, right? It’s like the ref’s word against ours.”
Tatum added that he was trying to have a conversation with crew chief Bill Kennedy after he was called for an offensive foul on a play where he thought he was hacked. Looking at the replay, it wasn’t Kennedy who gave him the tech but Nick Buchert and Phenizee Ransom. In the pool report postgame, Kennedy said that Tatum was ejected because “he continued to complain about the foul called on the floor and overtly gestures toward the officials.”
While Tatum clearly doesn’t agree with the call, he noted he wasn’t angry during the ejection or anything of the like. He didn’t go back into the locker room fuming and start throwing things. Instead, he just watched the end of the Celtics’ win over the shorthanded Sixers. Tatum thought he was fouled and wanted to have a discussion, though that led to him getting booted from the game.
“It was like, they was ready to throw me out,” Tatum said. “One of the magic words? Did I cuss? No, I didn’t. I didn’t have to say a cuss word. If you watch the clips, you probably can read my lips. No hand gestures. … I’ve been in the league long enough, I’ve seen a lot worse behavior and reactions get tolerated for a lot longer. So for those two to throw me out the game, I was shocked.”
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