Paul George is one of those players who tend to get heavily scrutinized by fans, especially in the playoffs. On other occasions, however, the fans stand on George's side, especially when there is a situation with the referees. Officiating is notoriously bad in the NBA, especially this season, and recently, George was fed up with the way he and his teammates were being treated. In fact, George went so far as to say that the referees were liars and were giving him bogus information when it comes to playing aggressively.
Well, as many of you know, critiquing the officials is a big no-no in the NBA, and George got hit with a hefty fine for it. The NBA announced today that George would have to pay $35K for his words.
“I mean, our job is to be aggressive, attack,” George said. “We can’t do much more than that, right? If they not gonna call it, they not gonna call it, and that’s the sucky part about it because we’re not flopping players. We’re not players that’s like throwing our bodies into other players. Like, we play physical, no different than any other player in this league. There’s nothing more that we can do, we’re attacking, we’re putting pressure at the rim, again, there’s nothing that I feel — unless we just start diving and playing a flopping game — there’s really nothing much that we can do.”
While $35K is a very minimal amount considering George's salary, it is still an example of how awful the NBA's policies are when it comes to this sort of thing. Criticizing the officials should not be a punishable act, but for now, this is the way things will continue to be.
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[Via]