It won’t go down as a technical foul on Boston Celtics superstar Jayson Tatum after all.
Tatum, who was called for a mind-boggling tech due to clapping his hands together after being called for a reach-in foul in Monday’s win over the Oklahoma City Thunder, reportedly will have the infraction rescinded by the NBA, according to The Boston Globe’s Gary Washburn.
The league taking away a technical foul after the fact is definitely warranted in this case since Tatum’s actions were incredibly minor and didn’t rise to the level of even remotely showing up an official. Many, including Tatum himself, were perplexed by the call and Brooklyn Nets star forward Kevin Durant even went on social media to bash the referees in support of Tatum.
Tatum explained his viewpoint of picking up the very questionable technical following the contest.
“I think I just missed a layup and I just committed a foul. So, anybody in the arena, anybody watching the game could have seen I was frustrated with myself,” Tatum told reporters, per NBC Sports Boston. “I didn’t say anything. I didn’t look at him. So, after the game you can just laugh it off when you see it.”
Rescinding Tatum’s technical foul is beneficial for the 6-foot-8, 210-pound forward who is morphing into a legitimate MVP candidate. It leaves Tatum with three technicals through the first 14 games of the season, according to WCVB, which is a small amount for now but if he keeps up that pace he could certainly be looking at a suspension. Any player or coach that picks up 16 technical fouls during the regular season is suspended for a game.
Tatum is known to routinely question calls, so he’ll need to keep that in check going forward so he doesn’t come anywhere close to reaching that mark.
With one less technical foul now on his record, Tatum looks to lead the Celtics to an eighth straight win when they take on the Atlanta Hawks on Wednesday. Tipoff from State Farm Arena is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. ET.
