Brown publicly criticized the referees and was fined $35,000! He previously declared he didn’t care: fine me as much as you want

On January 13th Beijing time, the NBA declared that Boston Celtics player Jaylen Brown was fined $35,000 due to his public criticism of the referees. Brown voiced his comments to the press and on social platforms following the Celtics’ 95-100 defeat to the Spurs at TD Garden on January 11th.

At that moment, Brown harshly criticized the officiating team and explicitly mentioned referee Curtis Blair by name.

“Every time we face strong teams, the inconsistency in the calls is outrageously bad,” Brown said. “I’m damn willing to pay this fine. Curtis, these refs were terrible tonight. I don’t care at all, fine me whatever you want. But this is ridiculous; every time we play a good team, it’s the same nonsense calls.”

This was Brown’s second game this season without receiving a single free throw attempt, despite averaging 7.4 free throws per game this season. As a team, the Celtics only had 4 free throw attempts in this game, whereas the Spurs had 20.

“Honestly, I feel like the Spurs got away with too many fouls tonight,” Brown stated. “I’m fed up with these inconsistent calls, and now I’m willing to accept the fine. Tonight’s officiating was just nonsense. The Spurs are indeed a solid defensive team, but not to that extreme. I hope someone reviews the game footage because every time we face strong teams, it’s the same ridiculous situation. It’s like the refs refuse to call fouls in our favor but blow whistles on the slightest contact against the other side. It’s really frustrating, man. We play our hearts out, exceed expectations, fight hard on defense, and then the refs reward the opponents for minor fouls. Meanwhile, many of the opponents’ fouls on our offense go unnoticed—please, someone check the clips.”

This season, Brown’s dissatisfaction with NBA referees has been a constant. He has criticized officials multiple times after games before, but his frustration reached a new level of intensity in Sunday’s match.

“I’m furious about how tonight’s calls were handled,” Brown said. “If we can’t even get to the free throw line while opponents use physicality to push us off our offensive spots, and situations like this keep happening, there’s no way to win games. We only got 4 free throws tonight and lost by 4 points. I’m not saying that’s the sole reason for the loss; we could have done better in some areas, myself included. But it’s just absurd. I attack the rim, play physical, never flop, never avoid contact, jump strong, my physical skills are evident, so what’s the result? Zero free throws tonight. This inconsistency in officiating is damn crazy, bring on the fine.”

After the game, Brown vented his anger again on social media, stating he was willing to accept the fine for his remarks.

The Celtics currently rank last in the league in free throw rate, partly because the team takes very few shots near the basket—their average number of attempts near the rim is also the lowest in the league. Brown ranks third in the league in average drives, behind Avdija and Alexander, but his free throw attempts per game are only 16th in the league.

“I don’t really know what’s going on,” Brown said. “I have my own guesses, whatever, but I honestly don’t understand. It’s just that every time we play strong teams, we always face these ridiculous calls.”