Rivers docked $15,000 by NBA
CLEVELAND — Coach Doc Rivers was fined $15,000 by the NBA on Thursday for verbally abusing a referee and not leaving the court in a timely manner after he was ejected from Tuesday night’s game against the Brooklyn Nets.
With 18.6 seconds to play in the first overtime of a double-overtime Clippers loss, Rivers was issued a technical foul by referee Ken Mauer. Rivers was upset because he had been talking to referee Lauren Holtkamp when Mauer intervened.
Mauer then hit Rivers with a second technical foul, an automatic ejection.
Rivers had to be held back by center DeAndre Jordan and Clippers assistant Sam Cassell as he tried to chase after Mauer.
"Obviously, I should have gotten fined, just from the actions afterwards,” Rivers said. “I had no problem with that at all. I'm good with it. I never read why they fined me. I'm completely in the dark. I just knew I got fined. They called me and said 15 [thousand] and before they said anything else, I said, ‘Hey, thank you, no problem.’
“I honestly don’t even know what they actually said. I’m good with it. I thought I needed to show something in that instance, probably not as much. But it’s over with and we’ve got to get back to ball.” The Clippers supported Rivers. “Doc’s passionate, man,” Jordan said after the game at Brooklyn. “He cares about us. He cares about the game of basketball. It was just unfortunate. We try to tell ourselves to not get fourth-quarter techs — coaches, too. Everybody is competitive and emotions of the game kind of get to you. … I’m riding with Doc 150%.”
Rivers said it was a point of emphasis during the summer that coaches should not leave the coaching box or risk getting technical fouls. Rivers was way out of the coaching box against the Nets.
“We’ve always laughed at the whole thing, honestly,” Rivers said. “There should be no box. There should be no nothing. You should be able to do what you want. …
“As long as you’re not obstructing the game or anything, I don’t think it looks bad. If I come across halfcourt and I’m challenging a ref, the ref knows when to call a tech or not. You don’t need any rules for that. But it’s the rule.”