Westbrook pegs ball at ref's head, cops technical
Russell Westbrook entered Wednesday night’s matchup with the Charlotte Hornets with nine technical fouls on the season.
That number’s not as high as it was last week — the league recently rescinded a pair of the Oklahoma City Thunder star’s T’s from earlier this season — but still high enough to lead the league.
Russ added to his total early in Wednesday’s game against Charlotte, thanks to a post-whistle indiscretion in which he threw the basketball at the head of an unsuspecting referee:
After a pair of Hornets runout dunks to tie the game at 16 with just under 3 1/2 minutes left in the first, Westbrook dribbled into the frontcourt to call timeout so head coach Billy Donovan could regroup the Thunder.
After coming to the sideline, Westbrook threw the ball toward the basket.
Referee Tre Maddox wasn’t paying attention, and it hit him square in the head; referee Brent Barnaky responded by instantly slapping Russ with a technical, despite his protestations that the headshot was purely accidental.
Watch the incident in the video above.
Westbrook seemed awfully upset at getting T’d up for the accidental falcon, but that might not have been all that got the All-Star running hot:
Russell Westbrook slow to get up & limping a little bit after he hit the deck and two Hornets fell on him. Seems to be favoring right leg.
— Tom Haberstroh (@tomhaberstroh) January 5, 2017
Westbrook went over and talked to official Sean Corbin during timeout. Lots of hand gestures and such.
— Erik Horne (@ErikHorneOK) January 5, 2017
Westbrook was pretty upset during prev timeout. Slammed on scorer's table. Cheeks, Collison each took turns cooling him off.
— Erik Horne (@ErikHorneOK) January 5, 2017
There’s a good chance that, like the two Ts wiped clean this past week, Westbrook’s latest tech will be rescinded upon review. For now, though, Russ is back in double-figures, and referees the league over have a new reminder to keep their heads on a swivel when they’re out there on the court.