Toronto Raptors point guard Fred VanVleet criticized referee Ben Taylor for his officiating during the Raptors’ 108-100 loss to the LA Clippers on March 9, 2023, at Crypto.com Arena. In a postgame news conference, VanVleet said, “I thought Ben Taylor was f—ing terrible tonight. I think that on most nights, you know out of the three [officials], there’s one or two that just f— the game up. It’s been like that a couple of games in a row.” He also commented, “Most of the refs are trying hard. I like a lot of the refs, they’re trying hard, they’re pretty fair and communicate well. And then you got the other ones who just want to be d—s and just kind of f— the game up. And no one’s coming to see that s—. They come to see the players.”
VanVleet also expressed his frustration with the technical foul called against him by Taylor with 7:02 remaining in the third quarter. The Clippers were up by seven at the time, and the technical foul changed the game’s dynamic and flow, according to VanVleet. The Raptors were called for 23 fouls to the Clippers’ 18, but L.A. had 31 free throw attempts compared with 14 for Toronto.
The Raptors have had two consecutive games with second-half technical fouls. In their 118-113 loss at Denver on March 6, 2023, official Scott Foster called Scottie Barnes for a technical foul before ejecting him with 28 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter. Foster said in the postgame pool report that Barnes was ejected on one technical because “he used verbiage that which directly questioned the integrity of the crew.” Three of VanVleet’s eight technicals have come from Taylor, with one other coming from another official in a game Taylor was working.
VanVleet is likely to receive a hefty fine from the NBA for his comments about the officials. He acknowledged that he would take the fine, saying, “it’s f—ing ridiculous,” but he believed that the jurisdiction and the power trip of some officials in the league were getting out of hand.
The Athletic Reports 
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