According to the Boston Globe’s Adam Himmelsbach, the NBA has rescinded the second technical foul handed out to Boston Celtics interim head coach Joe Mazzulla in the Celtics’ recent road loss to the Chicago Bulls.
Mazzulla had been disputing a call regarding a technical foul meted out to Celtics star forward Jayson Tatum based on the fact that Bulls big man Nikola Vucevic had similarly demonstrative after the same play that got the St. Louis native T’d up and found himself getting sent to the locker room for his efforts by picking up a pair of technical fouls in rapid succession.
The league recently released a new “Respect for the Game” initiative that is well-intentioned but has created a large number of fouls, technical fouls, and some high-profile ejections that may be a result of that initiative being implemented.
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While it’s unclear why Mazzulla’s second tech and the fine with it were rescinded, with Grant Williams also ejected in that contest for contact with a referee, Jayson Tatum the game prior, and Golden State Warriors star Klay Thompson vs. the Phoenix Suns, it may be that the NBA is scaling back said initiative.
That said, the Celtics would benefit from saving their critiques of the referees for timeouts and postgame — even with the fine that often entails — to avoid the deleterious effects of ejections and sending their opponents to the line for easy points.
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