Devin Booker ejected after bouncing ball to ref, a breakdown
What Happened
In a March 2021 Suns-Lakers matchup, Devin Booker got tossed after a quick double-technical sequence with the officials. The trouble started with LeBron James jawing at the refs over a no-call, then Booker getting whistled for back-to-back fouls on LeBron drives. After arguing the second one, Booker picked up his first technical, then bounced the ball to the ref hard enough to draw a second tech and an automatic ejection. Booker barely seemed to grasp what happened before being told to leave, untucking his jersey and walking off the floor.
Why This Matters
Two technicals in the NBA mean an automatic ejection, and the trigger here was about as soft as it gets. The first tech came on a verbal complaint, the second on the way Booker handed the ball back to the official. Officials have broad discretion on what counts as showing them up, and a ball bounced too firmly qualifies. Jomboy notes this was the second similar ejection in roughly two weeks, which highlights how thin the margin was league-wide that stretch. For Booker, in his sixth season and still chasing his first real playoff run, losing your scorer to a ball-bounce technical stings. The broadcast quirk Jomboy flags, where NBA TV's replay skipped straight past the buildup, is the kind of detail that makes these breakdowns useful beyond the highlight.
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Key Moments
Who / What Is Involved
Players: Devin Booker.
Key Terms Mentioned
Full Transcript
Click timestamps to jump to that momentall right so the other day on twitter i
got a lot of requests people reached out
on reddit they said hey can you read
LeBron's lips first can you break this
down can you tell us what happened
blah blah blah i go to nba tv did you
see what just happened there when you go
to watch this game on nba tv it goes
from 7 19 and then all the dramas about
to happen bam they skipped all of it
straight to three minutes
i don't know what that's about i don't
know if it's on purpose i don't know if
it's just an accident but you know what
you're suspect
here's what actually did happen this
kind of starts the sequence of events
LeBron's here he's trying to get free
chris paul
grabs his arm doesn't let him spin out
LeBron booker goes and gets the points
the points that's basketball talk he
goes and gets the points LeBron
just chewing the ref off this entire
time saying up over there and over there
and over there you didn't call in over
there you didn't call in the reps like
oh
okay dude okay uh yeah sure
he's like he's holding me down there and
LeBron just didn't watch any of the
beautiful
free throws cp3 was thrown in just
ignored him later on in the game
LeBron's taking the ball up
passes it over there he goes up for the
bucket spazzes out they call a foul on
booker
he's pleading his case and he's like
[ __ ] man it's not a foul
come on not happy about it looks great
though
LeBron has the ball drives the lane
comes up goes to the left they call
another foul and now booker can't
believe it he says something like come
on man
and that ref says technical hurt my
feelings and then he's like what and
then he passes the ball that rep and the
other rep
says another technical bounce the ball
too hard you're out of here LeBron
oh oh what the [ __ ]
what the [ __ ] whoa who's getting tossed
couldn't believe it didn't really know
what was happening he said something
here like oh
no i don't know what that one was
be cool if he was like oh you're so i
like this one booger's just staying in
and he's like just get out bruh just get
out bro
you got ejected so now he's got to leave
untouched his shirt because his day at
the work is over
and walks off the court this is the
second time in like two weeks we had an
ejection a second technical as they
passed the ball too hard to the ref it
seems in my opinion silly
that's just one man's opinion seems to
me like it's
silly if you love basketball we have two
basketball podcasts
on the john boy media network we have
talk nets and we have talk nicks
both new york teams excited about what
their teams are doing
for the first time both teams excited at
once how about that