The NBA announced that Sacramento Kings coach Mike Brown was given a $50,000 fine following his actions during and after the team’s loss to the Milwaukee Bucks on Sunday. Brown was irate for what he felt was inconsistent officiating during his team’s loss, and during the postgame press conference went on a five-minute rant, complete with props to show why he was so frustrated and what led to his ejection.
The league said Brown was given a fine for “aggressively pursuing a game official during live play, and for publicly criticizing the officiating.”
With just under 10 minutes to go in the fourth quarter, and with the Kings down 105-95, Brown can be seen yelling at a referee as the Bucks were in transition. He stepped onto the court and accidentally bumped into Bucks forward Pat Connaughton, and then got face-to-face with the official. He was quickly ejected and had to be held back by Malik Monk.
Mike Brown had to be held back by Malik Monk after he was ejected from tonight’s game 😬 pic.twitter.com/t36hpcy05g
— Kings on NBCS (@NBCSKings) January 15, 2024
After the game while talking to the media, Brown brought in a laptop to show why he was upset.
“I just wanna show you guys why I got kicked out of the game,” Brown said as he prepared to show reporters clips of the game.
Brown proceeded to show a series clips of what he felt were bad foul calls on the part of the officials.
Mike busted out the film to break down why he got ejected tonight 😂 pic.twitter.com/7sO8yJ3g9y
— Kings on NBCS (@NBCSKings) January 15, 2024
“The referees are human, and they’re going to make mistakes, but you just hope that A) there’s some sort of consistency and B) there’s some sort of communication between the refs,” Brown said. “And the refs tonight, they were great, they communicated with me all night. But in terms of consistency, you guys saw it right here. Dame coming off the pick-and-roll and Foxy getting hooked and almost falling coming off the pick-and-roll.
“And, on top of that, if you get communication and you get some form of consistency in the game, OK, then you can live with some things. But the consistency that I [saw] tonight — wasn’t in my opinion — there. And then, I don’t understand the rule, if the rule is you’ve got to go vertical both hands up, how can you take away two free throws with a guy with his forearm down here? If they’re going to change the rule on me and say, ‘OK the forearm can be down here, and another one can be up there,’ then all right I know that going forward. But that’s not what the rule is, because we get called on [Sabonis] all the time and they tell us he’s got to have both hands up if you want to go vertical. That’s why I got kicked out.”
It’s a hefty fine for Brown, but I’m sure it was well worth it as he was able to get his point across to show what he felt has been some inconsistency in officiating. He’s the latest head coach to be given a fine for criticizing officials, with Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic getting hit with a $25,000 fine for a postgame rant that called the officiating in a loss against the Lakers a “shame for the league.”
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