Kings coach Mike Brown fined $50K for criticizing officials

THE NBA fined Sacramento Kings coach Mike Brown $50,000 on Tuesday for criticism of referees during and after the team’s most recent game.

Specifically, Brown entered the court of play while yelling at referee Intae Hwang, leading to the coach’s ejection Sunday in a 143-142 overtime loss at the Milwaukee Bucks.

Brown then used a laptop during his postgame press conference to point out multiple calls he disagreed with.

“The referees are human, and they’re going to make mistakes, but you just hope that there’s some sort of consistency and there’s some sort of communication between the refs,” Brown said. “The refs (Sunday), they were great, they communicated with me all night. But in terms of consistency, you guys saw it right here. In my opinion, the consistency wasn’t here (Sunday).”

The NBA’s news release described Brown’s actions as “aggressively pursuing a game official during live play, and … publicly criticizing the officiating.”

In 2012, when he coached the Los Angeles Lakers, Brown was suspended one game without pay and fined $25,000 for making contact with an official. — Reuters