Former referee Steve Javie raised some eyebrows with his comments during Game 2 of the NBA Finals when he suggested that there's a double standard to officiating a game in the regular season and a game that can determine a title.
It was just a slip of the tongue by Javie on live TV. ESPN's rule analyst joined 95.7 The Game's "Damon & Ratto" Monday and gave a similar, detailed explanation of the differences that come with refereeing a Finals game.
Javie's comments came after a kerfuffle between Draymond Green and Jaylen Brown, when Draymond hung his feet momentarily over Brown's head before tugging on his shorts trying to get up from the floor. The two had to be separated and the referees debated whether to call a second technical foul on Green, who already had a dust-up with Grant Williams that resulted in a tech.
"If this is a regular-season game, then I would have called a double technical foul," Javie said. "I would have a double technical foul and Draymond Green would have been ejected from the game."
Context matters, Javie says. The refs know that a Larry O'Brien trophy is on the line and that throwing out Green in the second quarter would change the context of a series. It's not a midweek affair with little fanfare in December.
"As you get to the Finals, you have to think, 'Does this action warrant the consequence of that being an ejection from the game now that we're in the Finals?'" Javie said. "I would deem it no."
Whether you agree with the logic or not, Javie gives us insight to the thinking of a ref, as he officiated nearly 1,800 NBA games, including 23 Finals matchups. Javie said he once found himself in a similar situation in the Finals but restricted himself from calling a second technical on a player.
"This player said something to me that I normally would have ejected him because he had one already," Javie said. "The bench was right there and I said, 'Everyone of you heard this. Guess what, if he says one more word to me, he's gonna be ejected from the game.' So I think you have to see the bigness of the game itself.
"A situation like last night, it did not warrant – in my opinion, these actions – to be ejected from the game. Should it be a technical foul if there was no foul prior to this? Absolutely."
