Jaylen Brown will likely continue to pay for his stance against NBA officiating this season.
Brown was ejected in the second quarter of the Celtics’ 125–116 loss to the Spurs on Tuesday after being given consecutive technical fouls. While the league has yet to officially punish the 29-year-old Boston star, a significant fine for both the ejection and his subsequent comments appears inevitable.
Before getting tossed, Brown appeared to fall out of bounds while being defended by Spurs guard Stephon Castle, which led to a turnover. The All-Star swingman passionately argued with official Tyler Ford that Castle pushed him out of bounds.
Ford gave Brown his first technical foul in the middle of their exchange, which prompted Celtics forward Sam Hauser to try to come between his teammate and the ref. That prompted official Suyash Mehtato give Brown his second technical as he continued to emphatically argue, which resulted in his ejection.
The Cal product had to be restrained by multiple coaches and teammates before leaving the floor, with Celtics security, head coach Joe Mazzulla, and assistant Sam Cassell joining the effort.
In a pool report after the game, Ford said Brown received his first technical foul “for aggressively pointing and using profanity and resentment to the no-call” and his second because he “aggressively approached a game official while pointing and using profanity.”
After the game, Brown took to X to weigh in on his ejection. “This is the shit I be talking about,” Brown posted. In January, Brown was fined $35,000 by the league for his comments about officiating—coincidentally after another loss to the Spurs.
“I’ll take the fucking fine,” Brown said then. “Curtis [Blair], all them dudes was terrible tonight. I don’t care, they can fine me whatever they want, but it’s crazy. Every time we play a good team it’s the same shit.
“Somebody please pull up the clips,” Brown added. “I’m irate at the officiating of the game today. If we can’t get to the free-throw line and teams are allowed to be physical and bump us off of our spots and et cetera, then it’s hard to win games like that.”
Brown’s comments come amid a rough two-year stretch between officials with the players and coaches. In a one-week span in December, three separate coaches publicly attacked officials either in-game or in their postgame press conferences over how they worked their respective games, including Ime Udoka (Rockets), Chris Finch (Timberwolves), and J.B. Bickerstaff (Pistons).
The refs have fought back against some of the criticism. For example, the @OfficialNBARefs account admonished Sixers analyst Alaa Abdelnaby for saying during the Sixers-Hawks game on Dec. 15 that Atlanta should have been called for a backcourt violation.
After Tuesday’s game, Mazzulla backed Brown for his behavior over his ejection.
“I understand completely where Jaylen’s coming from,” Mazzulla told reporters. “Absolutely. And I’ve got his back 100%. I think he was 100% right to be frustrated and do what he did.”
