Rockets' Dillon Brooks fined $35,000, Ime Udoka $25,000 for comments about referees

"I'm sick of refs being right in front of the play and not making calls, and then compiling it with a bailout call like a flop... It's unacceptable for me. That ref shouldn't even be reffing our games, for real.”

Dillon Brooks knew he would get fined after getting ejected against the Bucks over the weekend and then saying that to reporters postgame. Tuesday the word came down from the league office, Brooks has been fined $35,000 "for directing inappropriate language toward a game official and publicly criticizing the officiating."
His coach, Ime Udoka, got a $25,000 fine for backing up his player postgame. What did Udoka say to earn the league's wrath?

"It was a blatant missed push out of bounds on that call, obviously. But the same ref (Suyash Mehta) is missing the same calls throughout the game, calling it very quickly or tight on other plays. Yeah, it was that specific play, but it was a ton of missed calls throughout.”

The play in question came with 48.1 seconds to go in the game against Milwaukee and Houston down nine. The Rockets were not rolling over and pressured the inbound pass, and the Bucks' ball handlers were looking for a steal. Brooks deflected a Khris Middleton pass that started to go out of bounds, both players went after it at first but Brooks got it and saved it right to Milwaukee's Pat Connaughton. Brooks and Udoka contend Middleton pushed Brooks — it looks like he does from the camera angle below — and there should have been a whistle and Rockets free throws. Instead, Brooks was given a technical for flopping. He was ejected for arguing that call, and Udoka followed Brooks to the locker room after he backed up Brooks and got ejected as well.

Considering the time and score, this might not have been worth the ejection for Brooks and Udoka, but they had been frustrated with the officiating throughout the game.