Evan Turner Not Happy With Ref Following Ejection
BOSTON (CBS) -- It was a frustrating Sunday night for the Boston Celtics in Orlando, as their five-game win streak came to an end with a 119-114 defeat at the hands of the Magic.
No one was more frustrated than Evan Turner, who let his emotions get the best of him in the game's closing minute. He was a little miffed with Sunday night's officials after he didn't get a call on a drive to the basket, and that anger boiled over when he was whistled for a foul on a steal attempt. That's when he let referee Sean Corbin know he didn't think he was doing a very good job (with a few choice words mixed in), and was hit with a pair of technical fouls and was ejected.
Turner shared his side of the story following the loss, and was still pretty fed up with Corbin's quick whistle that led to his ejection.
"I think it was just a couple of stretches of plays where, before, I drove to the rack and thought I got fouled," Turner told reporters. "And I came down and thought I stole the ball, and he called (a foul) prematurely, and honestly I was just thinking in the flow of the game and everything it didn't really balance itself out with everything that was being called. So I was just like, 'That was just crazy.' So pretty much I said it was crazy and it's B.S. and he T'd me up.
"I rarely ever say anything. So I'd seen him tech me up and I lost my cool, and I said something else. I mean, people are human. I made a mistake. That dude made a bad call, simple as that, so I'm an idiot because he has a whistle, so when he has a bad day at home or anything else he takes it out there, and that's what he did tonight and I'm out $5,000," he continued. "You know I'm like blowing my cool every blue moon but that was a horrible call and I was bad for reacting how I reacted, and I left it to a sensitive person to do the rest and put the team in a tough situation. And as opposed to being down three or whatever, we could have been down one."
The Celtics trailed by nine points at the time of Turner's ejection, which ballooned to 11 after Orlando's two free throws, making any chance of a comeback seem unlikely. But the Celtics made a furious run over those final 60 seconds, as a 12-3 run (highlighted by seven points from Marcus Smart in a five second span) cut the lead to just three before a pair of Orlando free throws put the game out of reach.
Turner finished the game with eight points on 4-for-7 shooting in 27 minutes off the bench, and though he was pretty upset that the ejection will cost him $5,000, he'll likely be even lighter in the wallet when the league responds to his comments.
