Photo by Jordan Johnson/NBAE via Getty Images
The NBA apparently took notice of Fred VanVleet’s criticism of referee Ben Taylor.
Ben Taylor is young for an NBA referee at 37 years old. He already has 10 seasons of experience as an official in the league, and was on the floor for LeBron James’ 61-point game against the Charlotte Bobcats back in 2014. Few fans knew Taylor’s name coming into this year, and that’s a good thing: refs want to fly under the radar and do their job fairly and accurately. If people are taking notice of a specific ref, that probably means they messed up.
Taylor can thank Fred VanVleet for blowing his anonymity. After a loss to the Los Angeles Clippers in early March, the Raptors guard blasted Taylor after the game in a viral rant that earned him a $30K fine. VanVleet knew the fine was coming, but didn’t care: he felt like it was important enough to air out the quality of Taylor’s officiating to the public. Boston Celtics guard Marcus Smart essentially co-signed VanVleet’s comments almost immediately.
It appears that Taylor has been disciplined by the NBA in the weeks following VanVleet’s rant. According to reporter Tom Haberstroh, the league has paused on using Taylor as crew chief for his assignments and instead positioned him as ‘referee 2’ in recent games. Watch the full clip of Haberstroh explaining Taylor’s recent assignments here:
“Since that Fred VanVleet rant… the NBA has actually demoted Ben Taylor in his assignments.”@tomhaberstroh on how the #NBA has handled the Taylor/VanVleet situation with @JDBunkis.
— Sportsnet 590 The FAN (@FAN590) March 21, 2023
According to Haberstroh, Taylor was used as crew chief in 41 of 52 games this season. Since VanVleet’s viral rant, Taylor has not been crew chief for four out of five recent games.
Watch VanVleet rant against Taylor here:
Fred VanVleet went OFF on referee Ben Taylor and NBA reffing in general in his post-game after the Raptors loss. Haven’t heard anything like this. pic.twitter.com/VcMkGTh0k3
— Faizal Khamisa (@SNFaizalKhamisa) March 9, 2023
Here’s the quote, transcribed:
“I mean, I don’t mind. I’ll take a fine. I don’t really care. I thought Ben Taylor was f—— terrible tonight,” VanVleet said, in part. “I thought that on most nights, a couple out of the three [officials], there’s one or two that just f— the game up. … You come out tonight, competing pretty hard. Third quarter I get a bulls— tech, changes the whole dynamic of the game. Changes the whole flow of the game.
“Most of the refs are trying hard, I like a lot of the refs, they’re trying hard, they’re pretty fair, they communicate well. And then you have the other ones who just want to be dicks and it just kind of f— the game up. Nobody’s coming to see that s—, they want to see the players.”
Taylor had called five of VanVleet’s first eight technical fouls this season, including one in the loss to the Clippers that sparked the rant.
VanVleet may have gotten a hefty fine, but the league also took notice. That’s money well spent to someone on an $85 million contract who is about to cash in again in free agency.
