An irate David Fizdale was as hot as he has ever been in a press conference following his Memphis Grizzlies‘ 96-82 Game 2 loss to the San Antonio Spurs in the first round of the playoffs.
The rookie coach had no preface to his unrelenting rant about Monday's officials upon seeing a huge margin of free-throw disparity in the game.
Fizdale went off… #Grizzlies #Spurs pic.twitter.com/qyzLvXZETi
— Jabari Young (@JabariJYoung) April 18, 2017
“It's unfortunate that I got a guy like Mike Conley that in his whole career has zero technical fouls, but cannot seem to get the proper respect from the officials that he deserves,” said Fizdale in his post-game press conference, per Jabari Young of the San Antonio Express-News. “It was a very poorly officiated basketball game.”
Conley wasn't the only one not getting calls, as seven of the 10 players Fizdale put on the floor did not get to the line even once.
“Zach Randolph, the most rugged guy in the game has zero free throws, but somehow Kawhi Leonard has 19 free throws. First half we shot 19 shots in the paint and we had six free throws, they shot 11 times in the paint and they had 23 free throws,” said a puzzled Fizdale.
“I'm not a numbers guy, but that doesn't seem to add up.”
Fizdale's rant would ramp up as he went through the stat sheet, seeing more and more ways in which his team had not been treated with the respect he believes his team deserved.
“Overall 35 times we shot the ball in the paint, we had 15 free throws for the game!” said an already exasperated Grizzlies coach. “They shot 18 times in the paint and had 32 free throws, Kawhi shot more free throws than our whole team. Explain it to me.”
San Antonio made 31 of their 32 attempts from the line and had a difference of plus-18, which Fizdale blames for his team's 14-point loss.
“We don't get the respect that these guys deserve because Mike Conley doesn't go crazy and he has class and he just plays the game — but I'm not gonna let them treat us that way,” he said. “I know Pop's got pedigree and I'm a young rookie, but they're not gonna rook us.”
“That's unacceptable, that's unprofessional… they did not even give us a chance.”
The 42-year-old coach seemed fully prepared for the fine that is league coming to him from the league office, but if there's ever a time to pay a hefty fine to make the refs pay close attention, it would be the playoffs.
“Take that for data,” said Fizdale as he slammed his hand on the press table and walked off the press room.
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