JJ Redick's Ridiculous Ejection (and 4 Others)

If there's one thing we as sports fans love to complain about, it's the refs. Every call against our team is a BS call, the league is constantly conspiring against us, you know the drill. One of the tools an official has to take control of the game is the ejection. If a player is being a nuisance, causing a disruption to the point where it negatively impacts the game, the official can toss them out. Normally, it's totally appropriate when an official takes this action. But sometimes, refs can do a legitimately terrible job to the point where all you can do is scratch your head. Take a look at what happened last night when the New Orleans Pelicans went up against the Boston Celtics along with some other uncalled for ejections.

JJ Redick (2021)

Here there is a whistle initiating a dead ball while JJ Redick is driving in the lane. There are no refs near him so he passes the ball to the official on the sideline. I guess maybe the way he passed it was deemed disrespectful to the official? Not sure why, but the official deemed it an egregious display of unsportsmanlike conduct that necessitated an automatic ejection. Nuts. Why Would JJ do this? Well let's see what got James Harden ejected not too long ago.

James Harden (2021)

James Harden here does the exact opposite of what JJ Redick did and got a similar punishment. Harden has the ball in his hands and just puts it on the floor so the ref can get it. If there's one thing I hate when watching basketball, it's when a player takes a shot after a dead ball that does nothing but waste time. I personally was appreciative of what Harden did here but clearly the officials weren't.

Demarcus Cousins (2016)

This one is kinda hilarious. Demarcus Cousins bodies Plumlee, celebrates drawing the foul, and gets ejected for spitting in the direction of the Blazer's bench. While I'm personally not a big fan of players spitting on the court, they do it all time. While it wasn't in an act of malice, the refs tossed him out immediately. What makes this even more interesting is they ended up rejecting Cousins after ejecting him. Possibly a once in a lifetime occurrence.

Rasheed Wallace (2000)

In the last one, the Blazers benefitted from the ejection. In this one, the Blazers were on the receiving end of one of the most ridiculous ejections in NBA history. While Rasheed Wallace hasn't had the best of luck with officials (there are no active players within 100 technical fouls of his career total of 317) this one is uncalled for. Personally, I'd be scared if a 6'11" guy from Philly was scowling at me, but this is ridiculous. Roscoe gets ejected for making eye contact, hope this doesn't happen again.

Tim Duncan (2007)

Almost definitely the worst of them is this one right here. Tim Duncan, the stoic, soft spoken leader of the dynasty Spurs, gets ejected for acting completely out of character. Tim Duncan? Laughing!? Joey Crawford got him right and got him out of there.