NBRA Deplores League’s Failure to Suspend Budenholzer

November 23, 2015 – During the second quarter of Saturday’s Atlanta Hawks – Cleveland Cavaliers game, Hawks head coach Mike Budenholzer was ejected from the game for making physical contact with referee Ben Taylor as seen in this video clip. In a sharp departure from past practice, the NBA fined Budenholzer instead of imposing a suspension.

“Referees operate in an environment in which an influential NBA team owner has repeatedly mocked the efficacy of fines as means to change bad behavior,” commented NBRA General Counsel Lee Seham. “Recent League precedent dictated that a coach who aggressively charged onto the floor during live action and physically interfered with a Referee would be suspended. We are now operating at a lower level with less transparency, degraded safety, and diminished respect for the Game. Coaches should compete by creating better teams, not by physically intimidating officials.”

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