He wasn’t fazed by the threat of a fine, said Toronto Raptors star Fred Van Fleet, before bluntly taking the NBA referee level in a brutal, loathsome struggle.
The Vanfleet Raptors were defeated 108-100 by the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday night, losing ground in the Eastern Conference playoff race as a result.
The Raptors, and Van Fleet in particular, clearly felt like they were being given a hard time by the officials during the match at the Crypto.com Arena. VanVleet was called out for a technical foul by referee Ben Taylor during the third quarter, and Taylor was called out by name after that.
He said: Don’t mind man. I’ll take a fine, I don’t really care. I thought Ben Taylor was awful tonight.
“I thought that most nights, out of the three [officials] There are only one or two left until the end of the game. It was like that two games in a row. Obviously Denver was tough and then came out tonight, competed really hard and in the third quarter got a technical bull**** – changed the whole dynamic and flow of the game.
“Most referees try too hard, I like a lot of referees. They’re so fair. They communicate so well, and then you’ve got others who just want to be a d**** and that’s just kind of playing. No one comes to see that s***.”
“They come to see the players. I think we’re losing a little bit of the texture of the NBA and what it was. It’s been disappointing this season. You can look it up: Most of my tech this year has been with Ben Taylor in charge, so at a certain point as a player it feels personal. It’s Not a good place to ever be. It’s not why we lost tonight – we were outplayed – but it certainly makes it harder to beat.”
The Raptors remain ninth in the Eastern Conference, six games behind the sixth-place Brooklyn Nets, who currently occupy the final automatic playoff berth. As it stands, the Raptors face a fight to stay in the playing cycle, only 1.5 games ahead of the Chicago Bulls.
