Los Angeles Clippers star Kawhi Leonard is famous for maintaining a stoic disposition. In fact, his tendency to remain stone-faced in the face of adversity has made him the subject of plenty of memes over the years. Thus, it's always a welcome sight for fans to witness Leonard become much more expressive of his emotions — which is exactly what happened during the Clippers' Tuesday night battle against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Late in the second quarter, Leonard drove hard to the hoop against Thunder wing Aaron Wiggins. The Clippers star powered through what appeared to be a grab from Wiggins, finishing a gorgeous layup in the process. However, Leonard, justifiably, wanted an and-one call; in a rare occurrence, and with an incredulous look on his face, the Klaw made his feelings known by clapping towards the direction of referee Mousa Dagher. But that just opened the floodgates.
Dagher, perhaps taken aback by Kawhi Leonard's response to a non-call, quickly called a technical on the Clippers star. This prompted Terance Mann to try and talk to the referee as well. However he too got a technical foul for his troubles. To top it all off, Mann, after receiving his technical foul, expressed his disbelief with a loud clap, which, apparently, was the final straw for Dagher, as the official ended up ejecting Mann from the game.
Given the officiating inconsistencies that all teams have experienced this year, it's no surprise that Clippers fans became furious with how quickly the situation escalated — from a made basket no less.
Clippers fans, beat writers, and even analyst Mike Fratello simply could not fathom how Kawhi Leonard and Terance Mann's actions warranted a technical foul, and in the latter's case, an early trip to the showers.
This was one of the wildest referee moments I've seen. Kawhi Leonard clearly got hit on the play, gets hit with a tech, which rarely happens.
Then Terance Mann picks up 2 technical fouls and gets ejected.
— Tomer Azarly (@TomerAzarly) March 22, 2023
Mike Fratello went OFF on referee Mousa Dagher, who gave the 3 techs and ejected T-Mann in 5 seconds:
"I do not know that official very well. But whoever it is, he got a little bit carried away with himself. None of these people came here to see you tonight… Shame on you." pic.twitter.com/Iqv5IUdSsK
— Tomer Azarly (@TomerAzarly) March 22, 2023
Terance Mann just got ejected. An absolute power trip from the ref who teched up Kawhi and Mann back to back before tossing Terance.
— Joey Linn (@joeylinn_) March 22, 2023
Referee number 50 just gave Kawhi Leonard a technical foul, and Terance Mann two technical fouls in one play. That's one of the most ridiculous things I've ever seen.
— Farbod Esnaashari (@Farbod_E) March 22, 2023
Refs have done a fucking horrible job and now they ejected Mann and T’d up Kawhi for calling out the obvious
— clippers fan (@kawhynott) March 22, 2023
https://twitter.com/JTsMVP/status/1638381522402045952
Alas, referees calling technical fouls for preposterous reasons is nothing new. Who could forget the time when Jayson Tatum received a technical foul after clapping… because he was frustrated at himself? How about the time that JJ Redick got tossed from the game after spinning the ball back to the referee?
At the very least, Kawhi Leonard and the Clippers now know what Fred VanVleet felt on a personal level.
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