Though we all consider ourselves veteran armchair officials, it’s often difficult to pass reliable judgment on whether a particular technical foul was fair or warranted. Video footage can be misleading, and we don’t have the benefit of audio to hear what’s actually being said out there between players and the officiating crews.
But there were a couple of real doozies on Sunday afternoon. First, Trae Young got whistled for a technical foul – and subsequent ejection, it being his second of the game – for starting down Kris Middleton after a deep three-pointer. Even Middleton himself admitted after the game that he didn’t think Young should’ve been ejected.
Then, just three minutes into the first quarter of the Thunder-Grizzlies game in OKC, Russell Westbrook earned a technical for some sort of outburst following a Jerami Grant free throw.
Russ got a tech…for talking to himself 😂 pic.twitter.com/g939ZpsJDS
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) March 4, 2019
Westbrook immediately tried to plead his case to the officials, claiming that he was simply talking to himself, but the referees weren’t having it.
It’s impossible to hear what he might have said, and the video doesn’t appear to show whether he was in close vicinity to one of the officials when he made his remarks, but nonetheless, NBA officials were quick with their whistles on Sunday afternoon for whatever reason.
