Over the weekend, Joakim Noah threw the ball at a ref, and then, if you read his lips, started singing a little Cee Lo Green to him.
"I see you wait for the miss to call a foul on me and I'm like.. F yoouuuuuuu"
Here's the video.
So we have Noah, clearly throwing the ball at a ref in frustration after a tech is called. You have him tossing F Bombs at the ref after the second tech. And you'll have exactly zero games missed because of it all.
Chicago Bulls center Joakim Noah apologized to the officiating crew on Sunday afternoon after he was ejected during Saturday night's win over the Toronto Raptors for throwing the ball in referee Derrick Collins' direction.
Noah will not be suspended, according to a league source.
"That was wrong," Noah said. "I was frustrated at the call and I overreacted.
Rajon Rondo tossed a ball at a ref and got a 2 game suspension. What's the difference?
I don't see how the NBA can explain this one away. Was it because Rondo was close and it actually hit the ref? Will the NBA's explanation be "well, as long as the ref can catch the ball you whip at him, it's ok?"
What about the F-You's Noah was throwing around as he left the court? Does that not make the situation worse?
I guess the NBA is happy being as inconsistent with its punishment as its officials are on the floor. All this does is add fuel to the conspiracy fire. And it's not like this was a player-on-player thing. How a player can be allowed to do that to a referee and get away with it is beyond me. I'm sure the refs appreciate the green light the NBA just gave players.
Precedent is one of the tenets of any system of punishment. You decide what is an appropriate punishment and you use those decisions as a guide for future punishment. The precedent set LAST MONTH for throwing a ball at a ref is a 2 game suspension. Rondo has no history of bad behavior that would make what he did that much worse than Noah… so you can't use that as an excuse. The NBA set the bar, and now it's refusing to acknowledge it.
It's just so damn infuriating. I wish the Celtics could appeal Noah's non-suspension.
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