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DeMarcus Cousins is no stranger to technical fouls. He’s a collector, a connoisseur if you will. But he didn’t deserve the “T” he got Monday night as his Warriors were putting away the pesky Charlotte Hornets with less than five minutes to play.
The foul was rescinded by the NBA on Tuesday. Too late; it should never have been called. Read on and see what you think.
One of the Hornets, Jeremy Lamb, came out of his left shoe, which came to rest at the free throw line. Ten great big basketball players were in the area. At least one, Cousins, was fresh off a torn Achilles. In the interest of safety, Cousins picked up Lamb’s shoe and flipped it to the sideline.
Tweet! Referee Brian Forte gave Cousins the 124th technical foul of his 10-year career.
Cousins was in disbelief. But a rule’s a rule, and NBA rules prohibit players from throwing anything into the stands. As Steph Curry learned when he flung his mouthpiece into the crowd during a playoff game a couple years back. As Andre Iguodala was reminded earlier this season when he heaved a ball that landed among the great unwashed.
“Next time I’ll just step on the shoe and roll my ankle, break it, tear an Achilles,” Cousins told reporters after the game. “Just leave it out there next time. I guess that’s what they want. I’ll keep that in mind.”
It probably would come as cold comfort for Cousins to learn there have been equally ridiculous technical fouls called by NBA referees. For your convenience, here are five:
1. April 15, 2007: Spurs center Tim Duncan already had one technical foul to his credit in a late-season showdown against the intra-state rival Mavericks. San Antonio was clinging to the eighth position in the Western Conference. A lot was riding on the final 14:20 of the game.
Then suddenly, Duncan, sitting on the bench, was assessed a second technical foul and a mandatory ejection by official Joey Crawford. Duncan’s crime: Laughing.
Duncan later said that Crawford, famed for his runaway temper, asked Duncan if he wanted to fight.
This was more than a slap-my-head moment. Crawford was suspended and fined $25,000 by the NBA. Looking back, Crawford had no problem with the penalties. He even sought counseling.
“The Duncan thing probably changed my life,” he said later. “It was just — you come to the realization that maybe the way you’ve been doing things is not the proper way and you have to regroup, not only on the court but off the court.”
2. Oct. 6, 2010: The Suns’ Grant Hill, in the shadow of his own baseline, was trying to move to the wing. The Raptors’ Reggie Evans was trying to prevent him from going there. There was some contact, whereupon Hill slipped to the court.
Understanding that there was no ill intent on the part of Evans, Hill gave him one of those manly butt-pats. Evans threw a butt slap Hill’s way. Hill then whacked Evans a good one on the fanny.
Tweet! They both got ejected. The punchline here — this happened during a preseason game.
3. Dec. 2, 2012: Compared to Rasheed Wallace’s on-court demeanor, DeMarcus Cousins is downright timorous. Wallace accumulated more than 300 technical fouls, 41 in a single 82-game season.
Late in the first quarter against the Phoenix Suns, Wallace, then with the New York Knicks, fouled Suns forward Luis Scola. Aggrieved by the call, Wallace gesticulated to the extent that he was charged a technical foul. Suns guard Goran Dragic shot the free throw, which curled off the rim. Wallace then bellowed his signature line, “Ball don’t lie!”
Tweet! Wallace, having played all of 85 seconds, was invited to take the rest of the game off.
The line? The New York Times referred to it as “the street-righteous version of ‘Cheaters never prosper.’ It’s karma at work.”
4. Jan. 4, 2017: The Thunder and Hornets were tied 16-16 late in the first quarter in Charlotte. A time out was called with the ball in the hands of OKC guard Russell Westbrook. As he made his way to the bench, Westbrook tossed the ball back to the baseline, where it would be inbounded when play resumed.
Unwittingly, Westbrook led official Tre Maddox perfectly. The ball hit the referee flush in the head.
Tweet! Interestingly enough, it wasn’t Maddox who T’d up Westbrook. It was official Brent Barnaky who saw it all and blew the whistle.
“Instead of him giving the ball to the nearest official, he throws in the area where Tre is and Tre is not looking,” official Sean Corbin said after the game. “The ball hits him in the face. So that is a technical foul.”
“(Maddox) turned right at me and then he looked away,” said Westbrook, who was severely chagrined. “I don’t know what what to tell you, I really don’t.”
Three little words: “Ball don’t lie!”
5. April 22, 2018: The Warriors and Spurs were contesting Game 4 of their first-round playoff series at the AT&T Center in San Antonio. Things got heated in the third quarter when a close call went against the Warriors. Forward David West bolted from the bench and raced to an exercise bike in a tunnel that leads to the locker rooms.
Who said what was unclear. But official Tony Brothers targeted West, who received a technical foul while sitting on an exercise bike — or possibly the hopping and skipping it took him to reach it.
