Toronto Raptors star Fred VanVleet didn't hold back earlier this month when referee Ben Taylor gave him a third technical of the season and it appears the guard's choice words hit home with the NBA.
The league has demoted Taylor from his typical crew chief role in nearly every game since the FVV incident. Via Tom Haberstroh:
"Since that Fred VanVleet rant… the NBA has actually demoted Ben Taylor in his assignments."@tomhaberstroh on how the #NBA has handled the Taylor/VanVleet situation with @JDBunkis.
— Sportsnet 590 The FAN (@FAN590) March 21, 2023
In case you missed VanVleet's epic rant, this is what he had to say about Taylor on March 9th:
“f—— terrible tonight,” Fred VanVleet said after the game. “I thought that on most nights, a couple out of the three [officials], there’s one or two that just f— the game up. … You come out tonight, competing pretty hard. Third quarter I get a bulls— tech, changes the whole dynamic of the game. Changes the whole flow of the game.
Most of the refs are trying hard, I like a lot of the refs, they're trying hard, they're pretty fair, they communicate well. And then you have the other ones who just want to be dicks and it just kind of f— the game up. Nobody's coming to see that s—, they want to see the players. I think we're losing a little bit of the fabric of what the NBA is and was. It's been disappointing this season. You can look up, most of my techs this year have been with Ben Taylor officiating. So at a certain point as an NBA player you feel it's personal. It's never a good place to be. That's not why we lost tonight, we got outplayed, but that makes it tougher to overcome.”
Evidently, the NBA has taken action because Taylor has clearly been targeting VanVleet. There are far too many unnecessary techs and flagrants being called across the Association because numerous refs are on power trips. It's honestly ruining the NBA. Perhaps Taylor will smarten up after his demotion. For the betterment of the game, he better.
Follow Us
Subscribe