Yahoo Finance Marcus Smart fined $15K after slamming officials: ‘I wish they would call the game the right way’
Boston Celtics guard Marcus Smart was fined $15,000 by the NBA after he slammed the officiating following their 108-87 win against the Charlotte Hornets on Thursday night.
Smith picked up a pair of fouls in less than 11 seconds in the third quarter, and got into a scuffle with Hornets forward Miles Bridges in the fourth quarter, which resulted in Bridges picking up a technical foul after shoving Smart to the ground.
Marcus Smart has been fined $15,000 for his criticism of the officials in Charlotte
Here are his comments from last night 👇 pic.twitter.com/PgDUceI8xs— Celtics on NBC Sports Boston (@NBCSCeltics) November 8, 2019
“I wish they would call the game the right way,” Smart said after the game. “A lot of calls that they called, I didn’t understand where the fouls were. It just seems like whenever I get the ball and I’m on offense, I can’t get a call. With the Bridges push and stuff like that, I told [the referees], I said, ‘If it was me, y’all would probably throw me out of the game and everything. So either you clean it up, or I will. I allowed y’all, I gave y’all all the time, y’all keep telling me, ‘Let us handle it, let us handle it.’ I’m coming to y’all first, but at some point as a player, as a man, you’ve got to protect yourself.’
“Nobody else is going to protect yourself. You’ve got to protect yourself. So if that means I’ve got to lose a little bit of money, then I’ve got to lose a bit.”
Smart finished the night with six points and five assists off the bench, having shot 2-of-8 from the field.
He got into it with Celtics coach Brad Stevens on the bench in the third quarter after picking up the two quick fouls, too. Stevens pulled him from the game after his fifth foul, and the two could be seen in a bit of a heated conversation. Smart later apologized to Stevens, and insists now that they’re all good.
The issue, he said, was because he felt Stevens wasn’t defending him on the court.
“I was telling him, ‘At some point you have to step in and say something as a coach. But since you won’t, I got to,’” Smart said. “I understand from Brad’s standpoint, but at the same point, as a player’s standpoint, you’ve got to step in.”
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