In today's NBA, it is common seeing a referee calling a technical foul on a player during a game. It has probably never been as notorious as this season, in which a lot of player-official issues have increased the tension between both parties. But how common is it to see the NBA hit a player with a technical foul after a game is over? It happened today. According to NOLA.com's Will Guillory,  the NBA has issued New Orleans Pelicans guard Rajon Rondo a post-game technical foul. The foul corresponds the Pelicans double-overtime win over the Chicago Bulls last Monday.

This is a very particular sequence, as the league office gave Rondo a technical foul when he was not even in the game. It all happened with less than a second left in regulation. The Pelicans were up by one and Chicago Bulls guard Justin Holiday was sent to the free throw line and awarded two shots. Holiday made the first one and tied the game at 114. But right before Holiday released the ball for his second attempt, Rondo was standing in front of the Pelicans' bench and threw a towel upwards. Holiday missed the free throw and the game went to overtime. The Bulls eventually lost the game 128-132 after two overtime periods.

While it is hard to entirely blame Holiday's miss on Rondo, the latter's distraction could have impacted on Holiday missing. Take a look at the video:

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While it may appear silly to give a player a technical for this, the NBA rulebook does state players should earn a technical if somebody throws any object before or during a shooter's release. The refs at the game did not catch Rondo's underhanded strategy, but it does not help his case that the Bulls ended up losing the game.