Charlotte Hornets guard Michael Carter-Williams and Washington Wizards guard Tim Frazier were both ejected late in Wednesday’s game between the two teams, making them the eighth and ninth players ejected from an NBA game in the past three days.
Michael Carter-Williams, Tim Frazier are 8th and 9th NBA ejections in 3 days
Is this just a blip, or is there something bigger going on here?
Sam Sharpe-USA TODAY Sports
Carter-Williams charged at Washington’s Jason Smith after the two players ran into each other. For some reason, Frazier got involved in the play and had to be held back by coaches and referees. With four minutes left in a blowout, both players were ejected while Smith escaped punishment.
More troubling is this week’s trend of NBA ejections. Twice on Monday, referees ejected a pair of players who were exchanging heated words late in a game, including Kyle Lowry and Ben Simmons, who agreed to “meet” off the court. The other pair was Trevor Ariza and Blake Griffin, which sparked Monday night’s ridiculous “locker room” story that, as it turned out, we had mostly wrong.
In another instance, Russell Westbrook was ejected for yelling at a referee who had failed to call a foul when Westbrook got hit in the face. After that, his teammate Carmelo Anthony went ahead and told reporters that he was “done with refs.”
There have been questions asked about the referees all season, both quietly and on larger stages, after they’ve repeatedly seemed to screw up situations that past crews wouldn’t have. Could the Rockets-Clippers fiasco been prevented with better officiating? Should Westbrook been given more rope, even if the original call was missed?
This isn’t to say that Carter-Williams or Frazier didn’t deserve to be tossed, but at the same time, neither truly did anything physical. If the referees felt it was necessary to deescalate, then that’s understandable ... but they haven’t exactly earned our benefit of the doubt so far this year.
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