It appears this month’s rant from Toronto Raptors star Fred VanVleet got the attention of the NBA’s league office. The 2018 NBA champ was fined $30,000 for his comments on referee Ben Taylor, who gave him a game-changing technical foul in March 8’s loss to the Clippers.
“Ben Taylor was f—ing terrible tonight,” VanVleet said after the game. “On most nights, you know, out of the three [refs], there are one or two who just f— the game up. … Most of the refs are trying hard. I like a lot of the refs. They’re pretty fair. They communicate well. And then you got the other ones who just wanna be dicks.”
Now, according to Tom Haberstroh, it seems Taylor has been demoted. Saying on “The JD Bunkiss Podcast:”
I will say that Ben Taylor, since that Fred VanVleet rant in which he called him out with some very harsh language for sure, the NBA has actually demoted Ben Taylor in his assignments. So, in the last five games, Ben Taylor has only been the crew chief once. He’s been the ‘Referee 2’ four times since that game.
"Since that Fred VanVleet rant… the NBA has actually demoted Ben Taylor in his assignments."@tomhaberstroh on how the #NBA has handled the Taylor/VanVleet situation with @JDBunkis.
— Sportsnet 590 The FAN (@FAN590) March 21, 2023
If you look at his 52 games this season, Ben Taylor was the crew chief in 41 of those games – basically four out of five games he was the crew chief. To put in perspective, Ben Taylor hadn’t been a ‘Referee 2’ in back-to-back games all season. After the Fred VanVleet [situation], it’s happened twice. I don’t know if that’s intentional or that’s luck of the draw, but clearly, the NBA has taken a different tact to Ben Taylor’s assignments, whether that’s punishment or whether it’s just ‘you need to chill out a little bit.’
It’s a bit surprising, but it’s nice to know the NBA can hold its refs accountable.
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