Kings Working With Buford on Behaviour

Wednesday, May 11, 2022

Sydney Kings owner Paul Smith has revealed the club has spoken to coach Chase Buford about his behaviour towards referees.

Broadcast cameras captured Buford striking the LED signage with his foot during the third quarter of Grand Final Game 2, resulting in damage to the panel. He was charged for unsportsmanlike behaviour and fined $500, reduced to $375 after he accepted an early guilty plea.

It comes after Buford was fined $10,000 and received a single match suspension that will be suspended until the completion of the 2022/23 NBL Season for multiple breaches of the NBL Code of Conduct after the Round 21 game against the Illawarra Hawks, which included publicly naming an official in a press conference.

Buford has apologised for his actions, but Smith has told NBL Overtime the club is working with him on cleaning up his outbursts.

“Of course I am speaking to Chase. Those conversations take place,” Smith said.

“We are in the midst of a playoff run and you got to run with the emotions and run with what we got. You can’t change the engine mid-flight.

“It’s about being aware and being cognisant of the circumstances and acknowledging the behaviour is not great. He has acknowledged that, and we have acknowledged that. We have dealt with it internally.

“Chase is what he is and it’s going to take time. It is a process, it is an evolution of a person, we all evolve. We all make brash decisions at various times in our lives, mostly when we are young, as we get older, we get a bit wiser.

“We have a winning program, we have a coach who has a brilliant basketball mind, and we got to help grow that as a person as well.”

Sydney holds a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five series against the Tasmania JackJumpers and could secure its first championship since 2005 with a win in Game 3 on Wednesday night.

Game 3 tips-off at 7:30pm AEST and will be broadcast live on ESPN via Kayo Freebies.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ltmLuGXhtVs" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>