Nets GM suspended for entering refs locker room
Jimmy Butler is ejected after getting in a scrum with Jared Dudley, but the 76ers still rally to defeat the Nets 112-108 to take a 3-1 series lead. (1:49)
NEW YORK — Nets general manager Sean Marks has been suspended one game without pay and fined $25,000 for entering the referees’ locker room after Brooklyn’s loss to Philadelphia in Game 4 of their playoff series.
The Nets lost 112-108 on Saturday in a game in which Brooklyn’s Jared Dudley and Philadelphia’s Jimmy Butler were ejected after a scuffle broke out following Joel Embiid‘s flagrant foul against Jarrett Allen in the third quarter.
The Nets were already angry about a flagrant foul Embiid committed against Allen in Game 2, and coach Kenny Atkinson complained that the 76ers held Allen before he turned the ball over on the Nets’ last chance to tie the game.
The Nets and Marks were livid over the belief that Embiid’s flagrant 1 fouls should’ve been deemed flagrant 2, a source told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. And more than sending a message to the league by challenging the referees, Marks intended to send a message to his own team on how the franchise is determined to support the way they’re competing in the series, the source told Wojnarowski.
The penalty was announced Sunday by Byron Spruell, the NBA’s president of league operations.
Marks will serve his suspension Tuesday, when the 76ers try to wrap up the series in Game 5 in Philadelphia.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.