Rick Carlisle received a $25,000 fine

April 25, 2015, the head coach of Dallas Mavericks Rick Carlisle received a $25,000 fine from the league for his inappropriate comments after Game 3 (Pollakoff, 2015, para. 1).

Last Friday, the Mavericks lost their fist home field game to the Rockets with 128-130, after the Game 3, the Mavericks put themselves in an inferior position in this series (Pollakoff, 2015, para. 2). During the game, Carlisle felt angry with the referee’s penalty, so he expressed his anger to the referees after the game. “My hope is that in Game 4 – the one play that’s kind of an image stuck in my mind, and I just looked at it six times on the film, is the first play of the fourth quarter”(Pollakoff, 2015, para. 3) Carlisle especially mentioned Dwight Howard’s cross-line behavior. “We’re scrambling like hell defensively, and Devin Harris is going to get the ball, and Dwight Howard throws him into our bench. He takes the ball, skips it over the top and Ariza gets a wide-open three.”(Pollakoff, 2015, para. 3)

After watching the Game 3, I found it interesting that the boss of the Mavericks Mark Cuban did not say anything after the game, but previously he received fines from the league several times because of his inappropriate comments. The practice of getting fines from leagues is an interesting ethical topic. The highest bill comes from the Rockets’ ex-coach Stan Van Gundy, he once queried referee’s penalty 10 years ago; then he received a $100,000 fine from the league (Aron, 2005, para. 1). From my perspective, I think Carlisle could exert pressure to referees during the game, he should fight for his team and his players, but he should not have criticized the referees after a game. Playoffs are intensive and furious, as a head coach of the Mavericks, Carlisle should watch his mouth carefully.

My questions are: What do you think of the league’s penalty to Carlisle? Do you think Carlisle should fight for his players? Why or why not?

References:

Aron, J. (2005, May 5). Van Gundy fined $100,000 for comments about refs, Cuban. USA TODAY. Retrieved from:

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/sports/basketball/nba/rockets/2005-05-02-van-gundy_x.htm

       

Pollakoff, B. (2015, April 25). Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle fined $25K for publicity criticizing officials after Game 3 loss to Rockets. NBC Sports. Retrieved from:

http://probasketballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/04/25/mavericks-coach-rick-carlisle-fined-25k-for-publicly-criticizing-officials-after-game-3-loss-to-rockets/

---Veeco Zheng