Luka Doncic fined $35,000 for making cash gesture towards official late in loss to Warriors

Dallas Mavericks star Luka Doncic has been fined $35,000 for making an inappropriate gesture towards an official during Wednesday's loss to the Golden State Warriors, the NBA announced Friday. The moment came with mere seconds remaining in the game. Doncic attempted a layup that could have cut the Dallas deficit down to a single point. He missed, and he didn't get a foul call as Golden State recovered the ball and secured the 127-125 victory. As Doncic ran back up the court, he rubbed his fingers together toward an official, making the unofficial cash gesture.

This was far from the only controversial moment in the game involving officiating. In the third quarter, the Mavericks were awarded the ball after it went out of bounds. However, after a timeout, possession was given to Golden State with no explanation. The Warriors scored an easy basket, and the Mavericks are protesting the result of the game based on the bizarre moment.

The relationship between players and officials has always been precarious, but this season, it appears to have reached a new low. Toronto Raptors guard Fred VanVleet recently criticized official Ben Taylor by name and was fined for it. Anthony Davis has suggested fines for officials after bad calls, and Trae Young recently echoed that message. At one point earlier in the season, the officials used their Twitter account to apologize for mistakes made during Games. VanVleet's criticism of Taylor went beyond that, suggesting personal bias. Other players are known to have similar issues with different referees.

This is a problem that the NBA is going to have to address in the near future. Officiating has never been perfect and it never will be, but the storylines following big Games have increasingly revolved around a few bad whistles. Clearly, that's wearing thin on the players, and while the NBA can fine them to limit such public dissent, more work needs to be done to get to the root of the problem.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Marquez didn’t want to battle Martin in Qatar to not hurt his MotoGP title hopes

Image
Martin endured a torrid grand prix in Qatar on Sunday, as a problem with his rear tyre meant he struggled to 10th while title rival Francesco Bagnaia finished second. The Pramac rider is now 21 points adrift of Bagnaia in the championship, having cut his lead down to seven 24 hours earlier after winning the sprint, and later raged against Michelin for 'stealing' the title from him. Martin found himself at one stage fighting with Honda's Marquez before the eight-time world champion eventually finished down in 11th. Speaking after the race, Marquez said he could see Martin was struggling with rear grip but didn't want to fight him too hard as the points gained wouldn't have "changed my life". "I did the whole race behind Martin," Marquez said. "At the beginning I saw that he was pulling hard and we were catching the group a little bit, but then I saw that he was starting to lose quite a bit of speed compare...
Read more

How Tottenham could line up with Timo Werner

Image
Tottenham Hotspur are signing Timo Werner on an initial loan deal until the end of the season. What a sentence. Go back two-and-a-half years to when Chelsea won the Champions League. Their starting front three now all play for rival clubs, with Kai Havertz at Arsenal and Mason Mount at Manchester United. What's even stranger about Spurs' move for Werner is that, six months removed from the soul-crushing sale of Harry Kane, the mood has hardly ever been better in N17. Ange Postecoglou has been on the lookout for another versatile forward and in Werner he has a player capable of filling various holes despite his deficiencies. Where will Werner play for Tottenham? Here are the different ways he could be deployed. Coming in off the left Werner has pace to burn / Masashi Hara/GettyImages Werner's most likely route into the starting XI comes on the left wing, particularly with Son Heung-min currently away at the Asian Cup with South Korea. Though initially signed by Chelsea as a ...
Read more

National Embroidery Month (February 2024)

Image
Quick facts When is it? Every February Tagged as Hobbies & Activities Items & Things What's the hashtag? #NationalEmbroideryMonth When was it founded? 1992 Have we missed something? Embroidery isn’t something just Grandma does anymore! Needlecrafts and handicrafts like embroidery, cross stitch, quilting, sewing and so much more have been making a comeback in recent decades.  With a departure from fast fashion and disposable products, and a movement toward arts & crafts and sustainability, National Embroidery Month is just one of the ways that this handiwork is celebrated. History of National Embroidery Month While modern machine embroidery techniques were a result of the industrial revolution, historians believe the craft of hand embroidery may date all the way back to 30,000 BC! Evidence shows that humans from so long ago were engaged with this art by using plant threads or animal sinews to sew decorations into garments or other items using ro...
Read more