Fred VanVleet Criticizes NBA Referee and Accepts Possible Fine

• Fred VanVleet tore into NBA official Ben Taylor after Toronto’s game against the Clippers on Wednesday night.
• VanVleet began by saying he was ready to accept whatever fine was coming his way.
• “Ben Taylor was fucking terrible tonight,” VanVleet told reporters.

Toronto Raptors star Fred VanVleet did not mince words in his postgame press conference on Wednesday, calling out referee Ben Taylor with some of the sharpest criticism you will ever hear a player offer an NBA official.

“I don’t mind, I’ll take a fine, I don’t really care,” VanVleet began. “I thought Ben Taylor was fucking terrible tonight. I think that on most nights, you know out of the three [officials], there’s one or two that just fuck the game up. It’s been like that a couple of games in a row.”

The Raptors lost to the Clippers, 108-100, on Wednesday night, coming off of a loss against the Nuggets earlier in the week.

“Denver was tough, obviously,” VanVleet said. “You come out tonight, competing pretty hard. Third quarter, I get a bullshit tech — changes the whole dynamic of the game, changed the whole flow of the game.

“Most of the refs are trying hard. I like a lot of the refs, they’re trying hard, they’re pretty fair, they communicate well. And then you got the other ones who just want to be dicks and just kind of fucks the game up. And no one’s coming to see that shit. They come to see the players.”

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VanVleet noted that Taylor was responsible for most of the technical fouls he’s been called for this season, including the one he took on Wednesday night. According to ESPN, VanVleet has been called for eight techs on the season. Three of them came directly from Taylor, and a fourth came from another official on a crew that Taylor was also working with.

“At a certain point as a player, you feel it’s personal, and it’s never a good place to be,” VanVleet said. “That’s not why we lost tonight. We got outplayed. But it definitely makes it tougher to overcome.”

VanVleet is undoubtedly looking at a significant fine for his criticism, but the guard closed his remarks by once again saying that he did not care about the money.

“I think the jurisdiction and the power trip that we’ve been on this year with some of our officials in this league is getting out of hand,” VanVleet said. “I’ll take my fine for speaking on it, but it’s just fucking ridiculous.”