Fred VanVleet is no stranger to blowing up at NBA officials, but his tiff with the referees in the closing seconds of the Houston Rockets’ 104-98 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers was extreme even by his standards.
It’s not immediately clear what VanVleet was so upset about, but eagle-eyed lip-readers online appeared to catch him calling each ref “a b—-” — and nearly poking one in the eye! — while getting ejected with 4.1 seconds left in the game on Saturday night:
Luckily for VanVleet, his seemingly inevitable suspension won’t be quite as long as the initial video made it appear, as an alternate angle made it clear he just narrowly avoided making contact with crew umpire John Conley, which would have likely seen him sidelined for a while:
This is easily the most expletive-filled eruption I can recall cameras catching between a player and referees since Kelly Oubre insulted an entire officiating crews’ bloodlines last March, and given that VanVleet nearly made contact with a ref too… he appears set to miss at least a few games for the 12-6 Rockets, and face a substantial fine.
In fairness to VanVleet, though, the NBA may have made him think this behavior can get him good results. In 2023, VanVleet was fined $30,000 for calling referee Ben Taylor “f—ing terrible.” That may not sound good on its face… until you realize the NBA unofficially demoted Taylor by no longer giving him crew chief assignments following VanVleet’s detonation.
So while VanVleet is very clearly going to get (at least) fined again here, if it results in Conley facing similar consequences to his old enemy Taylor… the Rockets guard may be happy with the trade-off.
