For Pete's Sake

For Pete’s Sake

This may be the worst technical foul call for taunting of the season

By Pete Grathoff

February 09, 2018 09:03 AM

An official in any sport feels like he or she has done a good job if fans are not talking about them after a game.

Well, that’s not the case for the officials working Thursday night’s Louisiana Tech-Charlotte game. They should be under the microscope.

That’s because Louisiana Tech’s Jacobi Boykins received a technical foul after a breakaway dunk. It was Boykins’ second technical of the game and he was ejected.

Here’s the thing: Boykins didn’t hang on the rim. He didn’t get in the face of an opponent. He didn’t excessively celebrate. He did look at an opponent after the dunk and smile, and that is apparently what got him the technical.

As color commentator Jason Capel said on the broadcast: “You must be allowed to show some sort of emotion. It’s a game. It’s supposed to be fun. You cannot call a technical foul simply because a player looked at another player and happened to have a smile on his face. That is absolutely ridiculous.”

Here are two looks at the play:

A smattering of people on Twitter suggested that the referee thought Boykins pointed at the opponent on the floor, but that seems like a stretch. You can’t tell definitively if Boykins pointed at him or if that was merely coincidental. Even if it had been intentional, it was not a case of taunting.

Louisiana Tech won the game 83-65.

Pete Grathoff: 816-234-4330, @pgrathoff

  Comments