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I have to say I was flabbergasted by the amount the NBA fined coach Larry Brown and the Charlotte Bobcats Wednesday.
The league is charging Brown and the franchise $60,000 each for Brown's behavior in Atlanta on Monday and for what the league perceives as Brown criticizing the referees after the game.
I was there in Atlanta on Monday night and again Tuesday after practice when Brown first talked publicly about his ejection. I was within feet of Brown on both occasions and certainly within earshot of what the principals said.
It's true that Brown "verbally abused" (the league's term) the refs, getting himself ejected in the third quarter of the preseason loss to the Hawks. It's also true that Brown refused to leave the court in a timely manner. That accounted for the first $35,000 of Brown's fine.
But to say Brown criticized the officials after the fact is at best an overreaction to what happened. And at worst, an injustice.
Brown had assistant coach Dave Hanners speak with media after that game. I figured that was Brown's way of giving himself time to calm down.
The next afternoon, back in Charlotte, I asked Brown if he thought he deserved to be ejected.
"I'm sure I did," Brown replied.
At that point, Brown was asked about all the fouls being called in the preseason and he said it felt like summer-league games, where so many fouls are called "you never get to see the kids play."
Now some important context: Brown made every effort to change the subject. He said the lack of flow in basketball pre-dates the referees filling in during the labor impasse.
He got off on a tangent - an interesting one - about how to fix the game he loves. And that was the substance of the story I wrote in Wednesday's Observer.
Brown was being a grand thinker, not a complainer. He was demonstrating the intellect and personality the NBA needs more of, not less.
I get it that the league specifically reminded team officials recently not to criticize the replacement referees. I get it that the labor impasse with the referees association is a tense subject around the NBA office these days.
But I also get it that the size of that fine just doesn't fit what Brown actually did.
