Denver Nuggets guard Jamal Murray received a whopping $100,000 fine after he was shown throwing multiple objects at a referee during a playoff game.
During the second quarter of Denver’s 106-80 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves (Game 2, Western Conference semifinals), Murray was pictured throwing a towel, then a heat pack in the direction of a referee.
The towel landed at the feet of the official. Then, when it appeared to be given back to the Denver bench, Murray appeared to throw a heating pack at the referee that ended up on the court in the middle of play.
Murray was officially fined $100,000 for “throwing multiple objects in the direction of a game official during live play” but was not suspended, the league announced.
Fellow Nuggets player Kentavious Caldwell-Pope retrieved the heating pack and tossed it aside at the same time the arena’s public-address announcer asked the crowd not to throw any objects on the court.
The officiating crew later told reporters that they were unaware the objects had come from the bench; otherwise they could have “reviewed it under the hostile act trigger.” Officiating crew chief Marc Davis told reporters that the penalty for such an act would have been a technical foul.
Davis was indeed the official who had the towel thrown at his feet by Murray.
Timberwolves coach Chris Finch called Murray’s actions “inexcusable and dangerous” and said that his team tried to convince the officials that it was unlikely that a heating pack would come from anywhere other than a team bench.
Murray left the arena without speaking to reporters.
“The playoffs are going too well. The storyline is that Anthony Edwards is ascending to superstardom,” sports writer Gary Sheffield Jr. told Blaze News. “People will forget about the expected suspension by the end of Game 3, and the story will be back on Edwards and that Minnesota defense.”
The reason Murray avoided suspension, Sheffield pontificated, is that he is pivotal to the playoff success for the league.
“You can’t transition to a post-LeBron-James-led NBA by suspending the second-best player from the defending champions,” he said.
The Nuggets and Timberwolves will play at least two more games in their series, May 10 and May 12, 2024.
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