|
Before Dallas Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle took questions, he apologized for kicking a ball into the stands that boinked a young boy on the noggin and led to Carlisle’s second technical foul and ejection from Wednesday’s 95-86 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder.
“I want to apologize to our franchise, Mark [Cuban], our fans,” Carlisle said. “The incident where the ball got kicked into the stands — that can’t happen. My intent was not to kick it into the stands, I was trying to kick it to the referee, but I’m not a very good kick. But, that can’t happen; the officials made the right call on that one. That’s a regrettable situation.”
It’s many of the other calls — or non-calls — that Carlisle objected to. He picked up his first technical 27 seconds into the fourth quarter when he felt Delonte West got fouled on a drive to the basket. Carlisle’s night ended about two minutes later when Jason Terry lost the ball to Nick Collison, who Carlisle thought should have been whistled for a foul.
— Reported by Jeff Caplan of ESPN Dallas (Blog)