Maor receives 'please explain'

Sunday, December 3, 2023

Basketball Australia has released a statement on Mody Maor.

Basketball Australia has confirmed it is reviewing comments made by New Zealand Breakers’ head coach Mody Maor, regarding the decision to eject him from Thursday night's game against the Adelaide 36ers.

Maor has been asked to provide an explanation for his post-game reaction where he said: “There’s a way things are done in basketball, and two technical fouls at half-time in a 40-second span is not the way basketball games are refereed ... I haven’t said a word about the refereeing all season long, and the stats and the numbers show themselves there. But there is a way things are done in professional basketball.”

Even though his struggling side clinched a 96-83 win over Adelaide, Maor was clearly baffled by the call to toss him from the arena and could receive a fine or even a suspension for breaching Basketball Australia’s Code of Conduct.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Basketball Australia are reviewing comments made by the NZ Breakers head coach Mody Maor during last night’s post game press conference to determine if he is in breach of the BA Code of Conduct. <br><br>No further information will be released at this time.</p>— Basketball Australia (@BasketballAus) <a href="https://twitter.com/BasketballAus/status/1730436415555817798?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 1, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

The fall-out comes after NBL CEO David Stevenson demanded zero tolerance for poor behaviour towards referees.

“This is something I feel very strongly about and I want to be clear that I will have zero tolerance for abuse of referees, full stop,” Stevenson told News Corp.

“I want to make sure they’re fully supported and that the message is clear for everyone, whether that be fans, players, coaches, clubs: our referees are sacrosanct and I won’t tolerate any abuse.”

NBL24 continues tonight with a double-header. The Cairns Taipans face the Brisbane Bullets at 7:30pm AEDT, followed by the Perth Wildcats hosting the Sydney Kings at 9:30pm AEDT. The games will be broadcast live and free on ESPN via Kayo.