Referee explains Giannis Antetokounmpo’s controversial ejection: Bucks star ‘taunts’ opponent with staredown

Giannis Antetokounmpo picked up his 2d technical foul within the 3rd quarter of the Milwaukee Bucks’ 120-118 win towards the Detroit Pistons on Wednesday, and some other folks had been fuming about it. Antetokounmpo performed most effective 22 mins earlier than his ejection, and the technical unfastened throw used to be the beginning of a 35-14 Pistons run. 

The 2d technical foul used to be assessed as a result of Antetokounmpo stared down Detroit giant guy Isaiah Stewart after a dunk:

As is typically the case after a controversial name, the group leader spoke to a pool reporter after the sport. Here is how referee Rodney Mott defined the collection of occasions that were given Antetokounmpo ejected:

QUESTION: Explain why Giannis Antetokounmpo used to be referred to as for a technical foul on the 3:47 mark of the second one quarter. Looked love it used to be “off the ball,” because the play used to be a non-public foul name on Cade Cunningham that despatched Damian Lillard to the road.

MOTT: On the play, Giannis drives to the basket and he thinks he will get fouled. Then he approaches the sport authentic and makes use of profanity, which is an unsportsmanlike technical foul and used to be issued at the moment.

QUESTION: Explain why Giannis Antetokounmpo used to be referred to as for a technical foul on the 9:00 mark of the 3rd quarter following a dunk and due to this fact ejected.

MOTT: After the dunk Giannis turns to his opponent and scoffs him and a taunting technical foul used to be referred to as, an unsportsmanlike. And he used to be ejected from the sport, in line with rule, as a result of two unsportsmanlike technical fouls, you might be ejected from the sport.

If you have been mad concerning the name, you might be most probably madder after studying this. It’s now not amusing to peer a famous person — or any participant, for that subject — kicked out of a sport for some mild taunting. Light taunting is amusing!

Technically, despite the fact that, Antetokounmpo wasn’t ejected for the taunt itself. Had he now not picked up some other tech previous within the sport, he would have remained at the courtroom. On a similar observe, “respect for the game” is among the NBA’s points of emphasis for officers this season — each workforce within the league has been proven a video with examples of tech-worthy reactions to referees.

It is price noting that Antetokounmpo is far from the first player to receive a technical foul for a staredown. He’s now not even the primary star participant to be ejected for the reason that staredown came about to be his 2d tech of the sport — in 2019, the same thing came about to Trae Young, and it used to be adopted through the similar outrage and the similar boring pool report. The tech used to be not rescinded. 

Sometimes, you’ll break out with stuff like this, particularly when you are now not status over any person or gazing him for 5 seconds. The most secure factor to do, despite the fact that, isn’t stare down someone in any respect.

More at the ejection:

• Bucks trainer Adrian Griffin informed newshounds that he must do a greater activity of “protecting” Antetokounmpo. “Giannis doesn’t complain to the refs,” he said. “He’s really respectful to the refs. And I think I’m letting him down in that sense because I think I need to be a little more vocal during the games when he’s getting hit and kind of stick up for him a little bit better. So I’ve been dropping the ball on that. And it’s an emotional game, he made a phenomenal play. It was exciting, emotional. And I thought he moved on fairly quickly. So I was surprised with the second technical, but that’s up to the league to decide.”
• Milwaukee heart Brook Lopez told reporters, “We felt there were a lot of questionable calls, but you gotta fight through that. And the way Giannis got kicked out, we obviously don’t think that was great or correct, but whatever. We turned it into a positive. It sucked not to have him out there, but it was a great opportunity for us to … have that look without Giannis and get a good two quarters, quarter-and-a-half to really work together and figure things out.”
• Bucks ahead Jae Crowder stated, via the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, “He made like a little face and he took off running and he didn’t say a word. I think that’s why he was so frustrated, like you really threw me out and I didn’t say anything? Like, the first tech, I think he would say he deserved it. He deserved that first tech. The second one was like, he didn’t say a word, so how do you throw him out for that? He definitely stared, but I don’t know if that’s a tech. I don’t know about that one.”