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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowIndiana Pacers coach Rick Carlisle was fined $35,000 by the NBA on Friday for criticizing the officials and “questioning the integrity of the league” with his pleas for fairness for small-market teams.
Carlisle made his comments after the Pacers’ 130-121 loss to the New York Knicks on Wednesday. He was called for two technical fouls and ejected late in the game as Indiana fell into a 2-0 hole in the Eastern Conference semifinals.
Carlisle complained about a number of missed calls, which the Pacers subsequently sent to the league for review, and implied a bias in favor of New York.
“Small-market teams deserve an equal shot,” he said. “They deserve a fair shot no matter where they are playing.”
On Thursday, the Pacers sent 78 plays they believed were officiated incorrectly from the first two games to the NBA office for review, a person with knowledge of the action said Thursday.
The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because neither the Pacers nor the league publicly confirmed the plays were actually sent.
Carlisle had said the Pacers identified 29 plays they felt were wrong in Game 1—referees had already acknowledged one of them on a kicked ball violation they said was called incorrectly—so that meant 49 more in Game 2.
With an annual salary of about $7.5 million, Carlisle is among the top 10 highest paid coaches in the NBA.
The Pacers host Game 3 on Friday night.
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Someone should start a GoFundMe for this fine. Pretty sure it’d reach its goal fairly quickly. Officiating has been laughably poor.
I think he’s proved his point. The NBA has absolutely no integrity, it is not a fair sport, and the League and it’s Officials are likely HEAVILY corrupt especially in the new “bet on everything” era of sports.
The truth hurts! And poor old Rick hurt their egos!
The officiating down the stretch of game one was certainly one side
and helped secure a victory for the Knicks.
They want NY to win not the Pacers. This way they can make more money from advertising. It is all about money.
Unfortunately, I have to agree with all of these comments. They want a larger market for more money. And while they’re at it, let’s exploit those with gambling problems.
This just confirms that the NBA has zero integrity. They don’t even have integrity for the game itself…its rules. Non-stop traveling
without being called…and I don’t even mean 3 steps being called a travel…heck, you can see in every NBA game where 3,4,5,6 steps taken without travel being called. Non-stop carrying the ball without being called. Non-stop fouling without being called. And how many teams play defense. Their own All Star game is a joke. By far the worst professional product out there other than the WNBA.