Sixers head coach Nick Nurse and Kelly Oubre Jr. have each been fined $50,000 for their actions immediately following the Sixers’ controversial one-point loss Wednesday night to the Clippers.
The NBA announced Friday that Nurse has been fined for “aggressively pursuing and verbally abusing game officials.” Oubre’s fine is for “verbally abusing and directing an obscene gesture toward game officials.”
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Both Oubre and Nurse were indeed furious and confrontational when no whistle blew against Paul George on Oubre’s last-second driving layup attempt.
Crew chief Kevin Scott told pool reporter Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer after the game that a foul should have been called.
Though Oubre said postgame that “there was absolutely contact” and he felt the late-game officiating was “uneven,” he apologized.
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“Heat of the moment,” Oubre said. “This is an intense basketball game of course. We’re not perfect, the refs aren’t perfect. I want to apologize for just losing my cool, because that’s something I try to work on each and every day. I try to represent God in the best way I possibly can and that wasn’t it, so I just ask for forgiveness.
“But I saw Coach Nurse getting riled up. If our coach is going to fight for us and he’s going there, then I’m right behind him. But at the end of the day, it wasn’t cool. So I’ll take whatever penalties come with that. We all have to move on, but I’ve got to be better.”
Nurse addressed the incident after the Sixers’ practice Thursday.
“I’ve got zero issues with Kevin Scott and JB (DeRosa) and Brandon (Adair). I’ve always had good relationships with those guys,” he said. “It’s super hard to be out there doing it. It was a really tough game — lots of intensity, lots of emotion. I am going to fight for my team when I think I need to, right? There’s no doubt about that.
“Do I probably need to do that in a different manner than I did last night? Yeah, of course. I don’t want to do that after the game. And we’ll try to do better.”