JaMychal Green fined for cussin’ and fussin’

The NBA fined JaMychal Green for using offensive language against the officials after Wednesday night’s game. At least he did something offensive for once.

Green was “profane and derogatory” in his language, and the fine probably would have been worse, but Green couldn’t keep the officials in front of him. Their feelings weren’t hurt apparently; a league source claims the insults were “wildly inaccurate” and simply “clanged off the rim of their feelings.” Whatever he said, it likely wasn’t as funny as when Green got whistled for a foul against LaMarcus Aldridge a few years ago.

Clearly Green was frustrated by the loss, in which he shot just 1-7 from the field, turned the ball over once, and got seven fewer rebounds than Steph Curry even though he’s 6 foot 8. In fact, he was so frustrated that he turned to words that reflected what he does every 7.3 minutes he’s on the court: Foul language.

Green was whistled for four fouls, perhaps the source of his beef with the referees. Obviously, as the new guy, he was trying to fit in with the rest of the team and participate in their favorite activity this season, which is committing a lot of fouls. Green also wanted to give Phoenix’s Jock Landale a piece of his mind, but Landale had already run down the court and dunked while Green lost track of him.

The $20,000 fine, like all fines, is split between the league and the players association, who send the money charities. One of the NBAPA’s pet projects is to grow the game, by helping refurbish basketball courts and rebuild recreation centers. That means that, in many ways, JaMychal Green is paying for his bricks. The NBA’s half goes to NBA Cares, a charity devoted to such worthy pursuits as making Harrison Barnes dress up as The Cat In The Hat to promote literacy.

20K a pretty standard fine for yelling at the referees. The baseline is $15,000 for such fines, so Green’s derogatory language was essentially $5,000 worse than what players usually yell at refs. Or, they gave him a bigger fine because they assumed it was habitual line-stepper Draymond Green at first, and by the time they realized their mistake, they’d already printed up the check.

Green dodged a suspension, so he returns to action Friday night when the Warriors host the New York Knicks at the Chase Center, where the only people cursing will be Warriors fans watching the bench try to play defense. Let’s hope JaMychal learns his lesson. After all, you can’t even talk to the officials like that at a Drew League game.