Washington Wizards guard Isaiah Thomas has had a rough NBA season. While he has been more productive this 2019-20 campaign than the last few, he is becoming known for his behavior than his production.

Last month, he was suspended two games for going into the stands to confront a fan. Then this past Friday (Jan. 3), Thomas made contact and pushed the referee in a matchup with the Portland Trail Blazers. While it appeared incidental, the action got Thomas ejected.

Thomas would explain his actions as incidental, stating that he didn’t mean to make contact with the referee.

“It was unintentional contact. Most importantly I would like to move on from it but I definitely didn’t mean to put my hand on a ref,” Thomas said on the incident with the referee, per Fred Katz of the Athletic. “Anybody who knows me — I’ve never been in any situation wheere I would do that, especially 88 seconds into a game, where all I wanna do is play basketball.”

While Thomas’s explanation makes sense, it’s easy to see where the ref is coming from. Referees go through a lot in an NBA season and take much abuse from players and fans alike. To protect their authority, they have to make calls such as this one.

But on the flip side, there are cases when refs let things get to them and can retort to pettiness. As with all humans on the planet earth, emotions can get the best of them. While the Wizards guard should not have put his hands on the ref, him getting ejected was understandable but subjective.

Isaiah Thomas so far has had a rough season, and so have the Wizards. Hopefully, the next time Thomas is in the news, it will be for good things like its 2017.