Hawks coach bumps a ref, gets tossed, and fined. Officials organization is NOT PLEASED!

During Sunday’s Hawks-Cavs game, Atlanta’s head coach Mike Budenholzer, upset about a call, stepped out on the court and made contact with referee Ben Taylor. The bump got the coach a technical foul, an ejection, and a $25k fine.

Watch closely on the left side of the screen about :36 seconds into the video.

The NBA fined Coach Bud $25,000 for “incidental contact” with a ref. but the ref’s rep’s are NOT PLEASED. In a sharp departure from past practice, the NBA fined Budenholzer instead of imposing a suspension, the NBRA said in a statement.

“Referees operate in an environment in which an influential NBA team owner has repeatedly mocked the efficacy of fines as means to change bad behavior,” commented NBRA General Counsel Lee Seham. “Recent League precedent dictated that a coach who aggressively charged onto the floor during live action and physically interfered with a Referee would be suspended. We are now operating at a lower level with less transparency, degraded safety, and diminished respect for the Game. Coaches should compete by creating better teams, not by physically intimidating officials.” — National Basketball Referees Association

The coach later apologized.

In statement, Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer apologizes to ref Ben Taylor: pic.twitter.com/hfmQVTJmmI

— Jeff Zillgitt (@JeffZillgitt) November 24, 2015