SAN ANTONIO — Boston Celtics guard Jaylen Brown was ejected in the second quarter of Tuesday’s 125-116 loss to the San Antonio Spurs after officials whistled him for back-to-back technical fouls.
On the Boston offensive possession before the technical fouls, Brown appeared to stumble out of bounds while being guarded by Spurs point guard Stephon Castle, resulting in a turnover. Brown argued vociferously with official Tyler Ford on the way down to the other end of the court that Castle pushed him out of bounds.
Ford, the crew chief for Tuesday’s game, said “in live play, we did not observe any illegal contact” on the no-call that led to Brown’s charged reaction.
Ford eventually whistled Brown for a technical foul. But the Celtics guard continued to argue with Ford, and official Suyash Mehta promptly whistled Brown for another technical foul as teammate Sam Hauser stepped in to restrain Brown. The second technical foul resulted in Brown’s ejection.
Ford said Brown received the first technical foul “for aggressively pointing and using profanity and resentment to the no-call.” Ford said the second tech was called because Brown “aggressively approached a game official while pointing and using profanity.”
Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla, meanwhile, displayed support for Brown in an indirect, yet humorous way.
Asked about Brown’s ejection, Mazzulla said: “I just give a ton of credit to my high school principal. He had the balls to throw a student out. He didn’t leave it to the hall monitor.”
Asked what frustrated him about the sequence involving the ejection, Mazzulla said, “He was a hell of a principal.”
The Celtics had a 51-49 lead at the time of Brown’s ejection. Brown continued to argue with the officials as teammates, Celtics security, Mazzulla and assistant Sam Cassell attempted to escort the guard off the floor.
In 13 minutes on the floor, Brown logged eight points on 4-of-8 shooting to go with two rebounds, seven assists and one steal as the teams entered the locker room at intermission deadlocked at 58.
It didn’t take long for the five-time NBA All-Star to post his thoughts about the ejection on social media, saying on X that “this the s— I be talking about.” Brown has been critical of officials this season, and he was fined $35,000 by the NBA in January for his postgame comments about referees.
Brown entered Tuesday’s loss averaging a team-high 28.7 points, 7.2 rebounds and 5.1 assists in 57 games.
“I understand completely where Jaylen’s coming from,” Mazzulla said. “Absolutely. And I’ve got his back 100%. I think he was 100% right to be frustrated and do what he did.”
