When you're championship contenders, you cannot afford to lose your composure like this. And Jaylen Brown, one of the Boston Celtics' leaders, just learned that lesson the hard way.
Jaylen Brown was thrown out of a crucial game after receiving two technical fouls in rapid succession, and according to video of the incident, the situation escalated to the point where security had to physically restrain the All-Star as he tried to confront the officials.
The Boston Celtics were in the middle of a tight game when the wheels came off for Brown. He disagreed with a call, voiced his frustration a little too loudly, and caught his first technical. Instead of walking away and letting his teammates calm him down, he kept going at the referees.
Tweet. Second technical. Ejection. And then chaos.
Brown tried to get at the officials, and arena security had to step in to prevent the situation from spiraling even further out of control. His teammates were pulling him back, coaches were trying to intervene, and the whole scene was just ugly.
Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla didn't help matters in his postgame comments, throwing shade at the officials and basically suggesting the ejection was unwarranted. "I'll let you watch the tape and decide for yourselves," he said, which is coach-speak for "those refs blew it."
Look, I get it. Jaylen Brown is passionate. He cares. He wants to win. But when you're one of the faces of a championship-caliber franchise, you have to be smarter than this. The refs aren't going to change the call because you scream louder, and now the Celtics had to finish the game without one of their best players.
Boston's margin for error isn't huge. They're battling for playoff positioning, every game matters, and losing Brown for a chunk of the fourth quarter because he couldn't keep his emotions in check is unacceptable.
