Some referees and umpires have a tendency to get hypersensitive over any perceived slight by a player — looking at you, Angel Hernandez — but you probably won’t find a worse ejection than what unfolded during the Pelicans-Celtics game.
New Orleans battled back from a 24-point deficit in Sunday’s matchup with Boston, and as the Pelicans were chipping away at that lead in the fourth quarter, Aaron Nesmith was called for a foul defending J.J. Redick.
Redick had been T’d up 20 seconds earlier — a call that was clearly on the mind of official Josh Tiven as Redick returned the ball to him.
Redick's ejection is absurd and the referee needs to be JAILED as a proportionally appropriate response pic.twitter.com/ffzyzGAaK8
— CJ Fogler #BlackLivesMatter (@cjzero) February 21, 2021
Redick returned the ball by putting some side spin on the bouncing pass, which forced Tiven to block the ball with his foot. For whatever reason, Tiven viewed that pass as worthy of a technical foul. That being the second technical, it resulted in Redick’s ejection.
Just ridiculous.
Redick was understandably stunned by the ejection and tried to make his case that he was just giving him the ball back. He didn’t chuck a baseball-style throw at the ref — he passed it underhand with some spin.
There’s no way that was an ejectable pass, and NBA fans were quite perplexed by the call.
JJ Redick got tossed for this?!
Refs need to get out of their feelings pic.twitter.com/sGYY8lu8w9
— Tony Clements (@TonyClementsTC) February 21, 2021
jj redick got tossed….for giving the ball to the ref….???? pic.twitter.com/77Jipnj1SR
— kb 🐍 (@kodybryant_) February 21, 2021
Refs are too sensitive, Redick just passed the ref the ball and got ejected lol pic.twitter.com/qdmJcLWCUA
— gifdsports (@gifdsports) February 21, 2021
JJ Redick getting ejected for passing the ball to a ref might make me stop watching the NBA
— Boston Connor (@BostonConnr) February 21, 2021
Here’s a longer look at the exchange between the JJ Redick and the ref that somehow warranted an ejection pic.twitter.com/t0xv5Aecll
— Bad Sports Refs (@BadSportsRefs) February 21, 2021
Let’s hope the league takes another look at that and rescinds the technical foul. There’s no way that T was deserved.
