Rick Carlisle blasts ref for ‘baiting’ Deron Williams into a tech
You rarely see this, and for good reason.
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During Wednesday night’s Pistons defeat of the Dallas Mavericks, referee David Jones clearly walked into Dallas’ timeout huddle to continue to spar with angry Mavs guard Deron Williams, even though Williams’ back was turned. When Jones was shooed from the huddle by assistant coach Melvin Hunt, Williams turned to fire a “what’s up?” at the referee, and was quickly awarded with a technical foul.
Watch:
Reggie Jackson missed the ensuing free throw because, well … you know why.
Following the contest, which the Pistons won by a 102-96 score, Mavs coach Rick Carlisle was more than a little livid at the obvious lack of decorum showcased by Jones. From Eddie Sefko at the Dallas Morning News:
“For the first time in a 33-year NBA career, I saw a referee make a point of going out of his way and walking into our huddle and baiting one of our guys into getting a technical,” he said. “I’ve never seen anything like that in my years. I don’t see how that can ever be excusable. So there are a lot of things happening right now and we’ve got to rise above them.”
[…]
Asked how Jones had baited Williams, he said: “I’m not getting into that, but he clearly did. He went out of his way, could have walked away from it, made a point of going back and I said, ‘I got it, I got it, let it go.’ He goes, ‘no, I got it.’ And he walked essentially into our huddle and baited Deron Williams into getting a technical. And I don’t think that’s right.
“An official’s job is to defuse the situation, not to blow it up. And the referee we’re talking about is an experienced guy. But I’ve never seen anything like this.”
Referees aren’t available to reporters after games, but after some notable incidents the NBA often makes officials available to a pool reporter. The league declined, in this instance.
Deron Williams?
D-Will is known as a rather milquetoast type. This technical was the first of the season, and he’s received just six in total since 2012. That’s not a whole heck of a lot for a player involved in darn near every play as he’s team’s lead guard.
The Mavericks are understandably despondent, as a desperate Detroit team (fighting for its first playoff berth since 2009) dug out a close win in Dallas’ home building. The loss marked the fourth straight defeat for the Mavs, leaving them just a half-game up on the Houston Rockets (who barely managed to hang on against a tanking Philadelphia squad on Wednesday) as the team sticks with the West’s seventh seed. Reggie Jackson may have missed his un-earned technical foul following Jones’ whistle, and the Pistons may have made just 56.7 percent of their freebies overall, but Detroit dominated the glass and still made eight more free throws than Dallas in the win.
Outside of the audible “what’s up?” from Williams, we don’t know exactly what was said before and after the clip above. On top of that absence of specifics, D-Will following Jones out of his own huddle, in most instances, is often worth a technical foul.
With that said, when the refs start things? It’s never a good look.
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Kelly Dwyer is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @KDonhoops
