Marcus Smart fined $15k for criticizing officials



The NBA has fined Marcus Smart $15,000 for his comments following the Celtics win over the Hornets on Thursday. Smart was none too pleased with the officials and sounded a little bit like Dennis Rodman or Ron Artest after the game.

“I wish they would call the game the right way, you know?” Smart said. “A lot of calls that they called, I didn’t understand where the fouls were. And it just seems like whenever I get the ball and I’m on offense, I can’t get a call, and with the Bridges push and stuff like that, I told them, I said, ‘If it was me, y’all would probably throw me out the game and everything. So you clean it up, or I will. I allowed y’all, I gave y’all the time, y’all keep telling me let us handle it, let us handle it, I’m coming to y’all first, but at some point as a player, as a man, you’ve got to protect yourself.’ Nobody else is going to protect yourself, you’ve got to protect yourself. So if that means I’ve got to lose a little bit of money, then I’ve got to lose a bit.”

Eventually Brad Stevens had to take Smart out of the gamer to keep the situation from escalating. Stevens would later say he loves Smart's "fire" and "competitiveness." If he has to get yelled at himself every now and then by Marcus, so be it.