Boston’s Marcus Smart concurs with VanVleet over the state of NBA officiating: “I’m gonna let Fred do all the talking”

Even though it’s common to hear Celtics’ Marcus Smart speaking his own mind, this time he will lend the microphone to Toronto’s Fred VanVleet, who’s post-match comments on Wednesday went viral after being extremely critical of NBA referee Ben Taylor. 

Even though the Toronto man got fined with $30,000 for his comments, the Boston guard believes that the Raptors player simply explained perfectly what he felt about the current state of NBA officiating. “I don’t know if you guys seen the Fred VanVleet thing, but that’s all I’m going to say,” Smart told reporters.

"I'm gonna let Fred do all the talking for me"

Marcus Smart shares his thoughts on Fred VanVleet's comments criticizing the referees after last night's Raptors-Clippers game pic.twitter.com/iiWcGSN3hD

— Celtics on NBC Sports Boston (@NBCSCeltics) March 9, 2023

“Obviously it let’s you know I’m not speaking out of my butt and I’m not the only one that feels that way, so I’m gonna let Fred do all the talking,” he continued.

Let’s reminisce on why VanVleet couldn’t hold his breath as he bursted in frustration this Wednesday night after the Raptors’ 108-100 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers. The player not only felt he was unfairly called out for a technical foul, but he also considered a general disparity in fouls and free throws.

“I don’t mind it. I’ll take the fine. I don’t really care. I thought Ben Taylor was terrible tonight,” VanVleet said without any filter. “I think that most nights, you know out of the three, there’s one or two that just (mess) the game up. It’s been like that a couple of games in a row. Denver was tough, obviously.

“You come out tonight, competing pretty hard and I get a (lousy) tech that changes the whole dynamic of the game, changed the whole flow of the game.”

The game’s statistics show little disparity in ref Ben Taylor’s calls

Let’s look at the facts, that night the Clippers were called for 18 fouls to Toronto’s 23. However, the Raptors were 13 of 14 from the line, while the Clippers were 24 of 31.

Check out the highlights from this Wednesday’s controversial NBA contest:

As there were 7 minutes on the clock remaining in the third quarter, VanVleet, who is in his sixth year in the NBA, was called for his eighth technical of the season. Subsequently, Clippers star Paul George put the Clippers eight points up as he made the free throws.

The Raptors shooting guard considers that the reason he picked up his latest technical was because he begged his team out load to fight through the questionable calls they were suffering on court. Even though he knew his choice of words weren’t the best, official Taylor wasn’t having any of it.

Toronto coach Nick Nure also had his say on the fouls. “We weren’t getting our money’s worth on a lot of those,” he said. “Probably a little bit of contact. We didn’t adjust (to the style of play) because we were back in the same situation.”

Just the match before, the Raptors had also suffered at the hands of another referee, that time official Scott Foster, as the Toronto team lost on Monday against the Nuggets in Denver. With 28.3 seconds and trailing by one point, young star Scottie Barnes couldn’t hold in his frustrations over the refs calls and was ejected.