The NBA announced Tuesday that Denver Nuggets guard Jamal Murray avoided an ejection or suspension after throwing a towel and heating pad toward referee Marc Davis in the second quarter of Monday night’s Game Two against the Minnesota Timberwolves. With three days before the series resumes, the sports world is full of opinions about Murray’s behavior.
On Wednesday, an actual expert chimed in. There, ESPN NBA rules analyst (and long-time NBA referee) Steve Javie explained why he would have brought the hammer down on Murray.
In his breakdown on The Dan Patrick Show on Wednesday, the 25-year veteran NBA official Javie described why he would have ejected Murray if he refereed the game in Denver.
“One scenario is if the heat pack is thrown on the floor and I don’t know where it came from or I don’t know who threw it,” Javie said. “In that scenario, I would stop the game and I would look at the bench … because I don’t think many fans carry that with them. So I would have assessed a technical foul on the team. That’s just a dangerous situation.”
The other scenario is if Javie were able to review the situation and confirm Murray threw the pad.
“I would have absolutely tossed him,” Javie added. “I would call a technical foul and absolutely toss him, because first of all he’s throwing it at me, the referee. And secondly, he’s causing harm to the players on the floor. It would be the same as if I saw a fan throw something on the floor, he would be ejected from the building.”
It was peculiar that Murray and the Nuggets avoided even a technical foul during the course of play. The refs seemed to be just as surprised as viewers at home that a player would actually toss something toward the court during game action.
Another element that hasn’t gotten much attention is Murray was seen showing what appeared to be a money sign toward Davis earlier in the game.
Murray was fined $100,000 for throwing the heating pad, but the money sign was not mentioned in the league’s announcement.
Javie is a prominent voice for officials given his long tenure doing the job and now as part of ESPN’s NBA broadcasts. It’s good to see him calling the officials and the league on their mistake.
About Brendon Kleen
Brendon is a Media Commentary staff writer at Awful Announcing. He has also covered basketball and sports business at Front Office Sports, SB Nation, Uproxx and more.