Subscribe
Follow Us
The strangest moment of a heavily refereed Game 4 that saw a whopping 22 free-throw attempts by the Cleveland Cavaliers in the first quarter and a total 67 combined trips to the line for the game (including seven technical fouls called), was what seemed to be a second technical foul on Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green in the third quarter,
Green was visibly irate after the scores table had shown he was ejected from the game and the crowd at Quicken Loans Arena cheered incessantly.
https://twitter.com/jdsierra/status/873375692217622528
Upon immediate review from the officials, the technical foul was still on Green, but showed that his first technical foul from the first half was indeed given to head coach Steve Kerr, not Green.
Per Brian Mahoney of the Associated Press via Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical.
“When the technical foul was called on Draymond Green, we reported it to the table,” said official Mike Callahan, who called the technical foul on Green. “The table informed us that it was his second technical foul and ejected. We informed the table that it was not his second technical foul.”
“We found out at the same time when we called the first technical foul (6:18 mark of third quarter) on Draymond Green. That's when we were informed by the table.”
The mishap was a misunderstanding from both parties — the referees thinking they were clear enough, and the scorekeeper, who logged Green's name erroneously.
“After calling the loose ball foul on Draymond Green, I noticed the reaction by coach Kerr and then assessed the technical foul,” said official John Goble, who assessed the technical on Kerr. “In the moment, I thought I had verbalized to the table that the technical foul was on coach Kerr. After looking at the video, I did not verbalize to the table, and looking at the video, I should have done a better job of making sure that the table knew the technical foul was on coach Kerr.”
Goble explained what the proper procedure is for assessing technical fouls and having them logged correctly by the scorekeeper.
“The procedure is to advise the table who the technical foul is on and with the player we give a number. With a coach or trainer, we just verbalize and at that time we should listen to the PA announcer to who it is on. At that time, we did not do a very good job of listening to the PA announcer and we did not hear him announce it. I take full responsibly for that.”
The play created an awful lot of confusion, even for the ABC broadcast crew, who was clueless about what really went on, not even bothering to call their own refereeing expert Steve Javie to comment on the matter.
