‘The impact was significant’: Referee explained why Grant Williams was ejected late in Celtics-Hornets game
"The acceleration is considered wind up."
Late in the fourth quarter Friday, with the Celtics on the verge of beating the Hornets, Grant Williams appeared to take out his frustrations on a longtime friend.
Williams charged at Jayson Tatum near mid-court and decked him with football-like force. He sent Tatum tumbling to the ground, also fell himself, and put up his right hand to indicate that he had, in fact, committed a foul.
He told reporters it wasn’t anything intentional, and he wasn’t “trying to harm him” in any way.
“It was a transition opportunity and I was trying to make a play on the ball,” Williams told reporters. “I did reach across his body and probably when you slow down the replay it looks like I kind of make a play and just kind of go after it.”
When asked in the NBA’s pool report why Williams was ejected, crew chief James Williams said it was because his foul was upgraded to a Flagrant Foul Penalty 2.
“At review we saw that he accelerated his speed prior to the contact, and so he makes significant contact with the dribbler,” Williams said. “The acceleration is considered wind up, the impact was significant, potential for injury, so this was determined to be unnecessary and excessive, which gets us to a Flagrant Foul Penalty 2. Again, by rule, that is an automatic ejection from the game.”
The Celtics and Hornets meet again Saturday night, at 6 p.m., in Charlotte.
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