The NBA fined Boston Celtics star Jaylen Brown $50,000 for his public criticism of officiating after Boston were eliminated from the playoffs by the Philadelphia 76ers over the weekend. The league announced the punishment, citing its “public criticism of officiating” policy. The decision came two days after Brown made his comments during a live stream on the Twitch platform.
During Sunday’s stream, Brown showed a play in which Sixers forward Paul George appeared to push off slightly before making an offensive move. “If you’re going to call push-offs, call that,” Brown said. “Same move. Same refs. Oh, it’s nothing? It’s play on, right?“ Brown said. “But you gonna call me? Everybody does it … but if it would have been me, it’d have been an offensive foul.“
The stream took place Sunday, following the Celtics’ 109-100 loss to the 76ers in the decisive Game 7 of the Eastern Conference first round on Saturday night. The elimination was particularly painful, as Boston lost three straight games after taking a 3-1 series lead.
Brown did not hold back against the referees
Brown was called for 10 offensive fouls in the first round, twice as many as the next-highest player: Jalen Duren, Karl-Anthony Towns, Neemias Queta, and Stephon Castle each had five.
Jaylen Brown of Boston Celtics.
“Every good basketball player does this. What are y’all talking about? They clearly had an agenda,” Brown said. “If Jaylen does this move, call the offensive foul and follow him every time. I don’t know if it’s because I pissed the refs off. I’ve been critical about them, and I called them out a bunch of times. So, they were like, ‘You know what, I got you in the playoffs. Watch this.’ Because that’s exactly what they did.
“It’s clearly an agenda. Look at the same move. Some referees that if I had to choose, if I had to, like, say there’s some referees that need to be investigated. We had three of them in the last three games.”
Brown is one of the most targeted by referees?
Brown may be one of the most affected by officiating, and there is a statistic to support it. During the regular NBA season, Brown ranked second with 40 offensive fouls called against him. Towns was first with 65.
In the Celtics-76ers series, the foul calls were relatively even between the two teams. The Celtics were called for 136 personal fouls, the Sixers were called for 132. So there should not be a complaint of any kind of help.
