Jaylen Brown receives 1st career ejection for irate reaction to foul, blames 'overemotional ref'
Jaylen Brown's only regret about his first career ejection was that he didn't berate the ref harder.
The Boston Celtics star got the boot in the fourth quarter of his team's 133-123 win over the New York Knicks on Friday, and it all started with foul call he clearly didn't agree with.
Brown found himself matched up against Knicks guard Immanuel Quickley and tried to poke the ball away at the perimeter. He missed, and the result was some contact that official Jason Goldenberg called as a foul.
To be fair, the contact appeared foul-worthy. Even the Celtics' broadcast didn't dispute it after watching the replay. Brown disagreed, however, and some lip-reading appeared to show him complaining that similar contact wasn't called at the opposite end of the floor. That earned him his first technical foul.
Brown kept going, however, even as he was subbed out. That earned him his second tech, and the automatic ejection that comes with it. An official, a Celtics coach and teammate Kristaps Porzingis all stepped in to keep Brown separated from Goldenberg as the player walked backed onto the court.
After a few more choice words, Brown headed for the locker room.
Jaylen Brown was ejected from Celtics-Knicks after a foul and talking back to a ref.
Was this worth an ejection?
(via @NBCSCeltics)pic.twitter.com/24rEu0xUVI— Yahoo Sports (@YahooSports) December 9, 2023
Brown's loss didn't stop the Celtics from holding on to improve their record to an Eastern Conference-best 16-5. Brown exited the game with 17 points on 7-of-13 shooting with four assists.
He was unsurprisingly critical of Goldenberg after the game, calling him "overemotional" and saying he wished he had kept going after the ref:
"I wish I would have got my money's worth. I always thought my first career ejection would be something a little more exciting. Maybe a tussle or something, 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’ve gotten my f***ing money’s worth."
He kept going when asked what caused the second tech that got him ejected:
"I don't know. 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'm on the bench, I'm talking from the sideline. He can't even hear anything I'm saying. So he called a tech from across the court.
"That's for sure have to do with somebody having their emotions too involved in whatever else is going on and they 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 that was bulls***."
Odds are Brown can expect a moderately sized fine from the NBA for those comments. Alas, we won't get the NBA's opinion on the original call though, as the play happened outside the purview of the Last 2 Minute Report.