Last Thursday (16), after the Los Angeles Clippers and Denver Nuggets match, Paul George was fined by the National Basketball Association (NBA) for criticizing match officials after his team lost the dispute. The compensation amount will be around US$35 thousand dollars.
For the penalty to occur, the NBA considered that the player’s actions were due to Paul George’s “history of public criticism of refereeing”. So far, in his six-year career in the sport, the player has accumulated around US$140,000 in fines.
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The revolt of the player who caused the inappropriate speeches is due to the poor performance of the Los Angeles Clippers in their last matches with several consecutive defeats. Regarding the case, the athlete spoke shortly after the match stating that he thought the referees were bad although the team played positively.
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“I thought we played really well. The adversity of playing against three extra referees is difficult. I thought they were horrible, for moral victories, but I thought tonight we showed another sign of a team that is close to overcoming the obstacle”, said Paul George about what happened.
The athlete continued: “It was bad. Five free throws is very disrespectful tonight. I got hit on layups so many times, 3-pointers were constant. Throws, getting hit, hitting forearms. I mean, it was bad, a bad job. But again, we have to be able to beat these guys on the ground and not rely on that.”
In the same match, the referees were criticized by other athletes for not being able to identify passes, leading the team to identify two wrong cancellations towards the end of the match. The NBA spoke out admitting that during the game between the two teams there were some mistakes.