Ospreys

LOS ANGELES (AP) &mdash; Fred VanVleet tried to take a double breath before addressing reporters. But the Toronto Raptors guard was unable to suppress his frustration with referee Ben Taylor and his crew.
VanVleet was extremely critical of Taylor after the Raptors&rsquo; 108-100 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday night &mdash; not only for being called for a technical foul, but for the disparity in fouls and free throws.
&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t mind it. I&rsquo;ll take the fine. I don&rsquo;t really care. I thought Ben Taylor was terrible tonight,&rdquo; VanVleet said while using profanity. &ldquo;I think that most nights, you know out of the three, there&rsquo;s one or two that just (mess) the game up. It&rsquo;s been like that a couple of games in a row. Denver was tough, obviously.
&ldquo;You come out tonight, competing pretty hard and I get a (lousy) tech that changes the whole dynamic of the game, changed the whole flow of the game.&rdquo;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
Fred VanVleet went OFF on referee Ben Taylor and NBA reffing in general in his post-game after the Raptors loss. Haven't heard anything like this. <a href="https://t.co/VcMkGTh0k3">pic.twitter.com/VcMkGTh0k3</a>
&mdash; Faizal Khamisa (@SNFaizalKhamisa) <a href="https://twitter.com/SNFaizalKhamisa/status/1633715635988332544?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 9, 2023</a></blockquote>

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VanVleet, who is in his sixth year in the league, was called for his eighth technical of the season with 7:02 remaining in the third quarter. Paul George made the free throw to put the Clippers up 65-57.
VanVleet said the reason he picked up the technical was because he was imploring his team to play through what he thought were some questionable calls, albeit with more colorful language. He also said he understood there is a fine line on what he can say, but thought Taylor didn&rsquo;t give him enough leeway.
Toronto was called for 23 fouls to Los Angeles&rsquo; 18, but the Clippers were 24 of 31 from the line while the Raptors were 13 of 14.
&ldquo;We weren&rsquo;t getting our money&rsquo;s worth on a lot of those,&rdquo; Raptors coach Nick Nurse said of the fouls. &ldquo;Probably a little bit of contact. We didn&rsquo;t adjust (to the style of play) because we were back in the same situation.&rdquo;
VanVleet and the Raptors were already in a foul mood about officiating before Wednesday&rsquo;s game. They lost Monday night at Denver 118-113 after Scottie Barnes was ejected by Scott Foster with 28.3 seconds left and the Raptors trailing by one.
The technical came after Toronto&rsquo;s Jakob Poeltl was called for a foul. Denver made the three subsequent free throws to ice the game.
Of VanVleet&rsquo;s eight technicals, three have been assessed by Taylor with one other coming from another official on a game Taylor was working. Taylor is in his 10th season as an NBA official.
&ldquo;At a certain point as a player, you feel it&rsquo;s personal and it&rsquo;s never a good place to be,&rdquo; VanVleet said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s not why we lost tonight, we got outplayed, but it definitely makes it tougher to overcome.&rdquo;
VanVleet was already facing a $3,000 fine for the technical. He will face a bigger one for going off on officiating.
&ldquo;I think the jurisdiction and the power trip that we&rsquo;ve been on this year with some of our officials in this league is getting out of hand and l&rsquo;ll take my fine for speaking on it,&rdquo; VanVleet said. &ldquo;Most of the refs are trying hard, I like a lot of the refs, they&rsquo;re trying hard, they&rsquo;re pretty fair, and communicate well. And then you got the other ones who just want to be (idiots) and just kind of (screw) up the game. And no one&rsquo;s coming to see that. They come to see the players.
&ldquo;And I think we&rsquo;re losing a little bit of the fabric of what the NBA is and was, and it&rsquo;s been disappointing this season.&rdquo;

"I thought Ben Taylor was terrible tonight,” Fred VanVleet said while using profanity following Toronto's loss to the LA Clippers.

Raptors’ VanVleet heavily criticizes officiating after loss

TBT Record 71 Players with NBA Experience and 29 Alumni Teams to Compete
Jimmer Fredette, Projected 2023 Draft Top-10 Picks Ausar and Amen Thompson Highlight Field of 64 Competing for $1M Prize on ESPN
The Basketball Tournament (TBT) &ndash; the $1 million, winner-take-all, summer basketball event broadcast live on ESPN networks today released the bracket for this year&rsquo;s tournament. For the fifth year in a row, all games will feature TBT&rsquo;s Elam Ending&reg;.
Now in its ninth year, TBT 2022 will feature 71 players with NBA experience and 29 college alumni teams, both of which are TBT records. The field will once again feature 64 teams squaring off in a single-elimination format and will be supported by longtime partners PUMA, Zelle, and E&amp;J Brandy.&nbsp;
The field will be split into eight regions played over two weeks in July. Seven of those regions will be headlined by alumni teams, while the eighth regional will be played at Rucker Park&rsquo;s legendary Greg Marius Court in New York City.
One team from each region will advance to the quarterfinals, which will be split between Wichita, Kansas (July 27) and Dayton, Ohio (July 28-29). Dayton will also host TBT&rsquo;s semifinals (July 30), as well as TBT&rsquo;s $1 million winner-take-all championship game (Aug. 2).
&ldquo;This year&rsquo;s field is electrifying,&rdquo; said TBT founder and CEO Jon Mugar. &ldquo;Nine years ago, we set out to be the home for high stakes, open-to-all basketball, pitting people against one another from all walks of life. This year&rsquo;s field demonstrates how far we&rsquo;ve come. It is exceptionally diverse and talented. I can&rsquo;t wait to see what team wins six straight games.&rdquo;
The full TBT 2022 schedule includes:
Regional Host Cities
&nbsp; &nbsp; Omaha, Neb. &ndash; headlined by Omaha Blue Crew (Creighton) &ndash; July 16-19
&nbsp; &nbsp; New York City, N.Y. (Rucker Park) &ndash; headlined by Marcus Smart&rsquo;s YGC &ndash; July 16-20
&nbsp; &nbsp; Albuquerque, N.M. &ndash; headlined by The Enchantment (University of New Mexico) &ndash; July 28-21
&nbsp; &nbsp; Wichita, Kan. &ndash; headlined by AfterShocks (Wichita State) &ndash; July 22-25
&nbsp; &nbsp; Syracuse, N.Y. &ndash; headlined by Boehiem&rsquo;s Army (Syracuse) &ndash; July 22-25
&nbsp; &nbsp; Charleston, W. Va. &nbsp;&ndash; headlined by Best Virginia (West Virginia) and Herd That (Marshall) &nbsp;&ndash; July 24-27
&nbsp; &nbsp; Cincinnati, Ohio &ndash; headlined by Zip &lsquo;Em Up (Xavier) &ndash; July 24-27
&nbsp; &nbsp; Dayton, Ohio &ndash; headlined by Red Scare (Dayton) &ndash; July 24-27
Championship Week Schedule&nbsp;
&nbsp; &nbsp; Quarterfinals &ndash; July 27 (Wichita), July 28-29 (Dayton)
&nbsp; &nbsp; Semifinals &ndash; &nbsp;Saturday, July 30 (Dayton)
&nbsp; &nbsp; $1 Million, Winner-Take-All Championship &ndash; Tuesday, Aug. 2 (Dayton)&nbsp;
Highlights of this year&rsquo;s tournament include:&nbsp;
- New Look Boeheim&rsquo;s Army Set to Defend TBT Title &ndash; Boeheim&rsquo;s Army, who after seven years finally won its first TBT championship, is set to defend its title in Syracuse this summer. First-time TBT participants and Syracuse alums Tyler Ennis, Rakeem Christmas, and Marek Dolezaj join a core that includes TBT legend D.J. Kennedy, who is seeking his sixth TBT title, and DeAndre Kane, who is going for his fifth.
- TBT Steps Outdoors at World Famous Rucker Park &ndash; TBT will be playing games outdoors for the first time in the event&rsquo;s history this summer at New York City&rsquo;s famed Rucker Park. The event, in partnership with Chick-Fil-A Tri-State and the NBPA, will be free and open to the public. Headlining the regional are YGC, a team backed by Boston Celtics guard Marcus Smart, and Skip To My Lou, named after and coached by former NBA player and streetball legend Rafer Alston.
- Jimmer Fredette Joins The Money Team &ndash; 2011 National college player of the year and NBA Draft lottery pick Jimmer Fredette will return to TBT this summer as a member of Floyd Mayweather&rsquo;s The Money Team. A quarterfinalist in 2021, The Money Team&rsquo;s roster also includes three other players with NBA experience: Trevor Booker, Jeremy Evans, Charles Jenkins, and Xavier Munford.
- Overtime Enters TBT&rsquo;s First Draft-Eligible Team &ndash; Media brand Overtime will enter its first TBT team, Team Overtime, which is slated to include four 2023 draft-eligible prospects from their new professional pathway program Overtime Elite. Twins Ausar and Amen Thompson, both projected top-10 picks in the 2023 NBA Draft, will be joined by former five-star recruit Jazian Gortman and four-star recruit Jaylen Martin on a roster with several veteran professionals, including former NBA player Malcolm Thomas. Team Overtime will be competing in the Omaha Regional.
- Rivalries Renewed &ndash; Two brand new sets of bitter rivals could be facing off in TBT this summer. Xavier Regional headliner, Zip &lsquo;Em Up (Xavier Alumni), will be joined by crosstown rival Nasty Nati, a Cincinnati alumni team whose roster includes former first-round pick Jacob Evans. The Enchantment, a New Mexico alumni team, and Panamaniacs, a New Mexico State alumni team, will go head-to-head in the first-round of the New Mexico Regional in a battle for in-state supremacy. Best Virginia, the West Virginia alumni team, and Herd That, the Marshall alumni team, could both finally get their long-awaited matchup in the second round of the West Virginia Regional. Stillwater Stars, an Oklahoma State alumni team starring Markel Brown, will go toe-to-toe with Big 12 foes Air Raiders, a first-year Texas Tech alumni team composed mainly of their 2019 NCAA Tournament Runner-Up team that includes former first-round pick Zhaire Smith.
- Sideline Cancer&rsquo;s Big Offseason &ndash; TBT&rsquo;s runner-up in 2020 and a quarterfinalist in 2021, Sideline Cancer is gearing up for a championship run. They&rsquo;ll add Mike Daum, the NCAA&rsquo;s seventh leading scorer all-time, 16-year NBA veteran C.J. Miles, and former Iowa State star Diante Garrett to take some of the scoring load off explosive guard Marcus Keene.
Free Throws&hellip;
<ul>
<li>TBT&rsquo;s &amp; Puma&rsquo;s innovative 33-point contest, which pits two shooters head-to-head where the first to make 11 threes advances, will return. The final eight shooters who advance out of TBT&rsquo;s regional locations will compete live on Thursday, July 28 live on ESPN2 for a $33,333 grand prize. Winner-take-all.</li>
<li>NFT project Gutter Cat Gang has entered a TBT team in the Omaha Regional in collaboration with Kyle Hines, the most decorated American in European basketball history.</li>
<li>Notable boxer and Cincinnati native Adrien Broner&rsquo;s AboutBillions team will compete in the Xavier Regional for the first time.</li>
<li>Prominent content brand Friday Beers will make their first foray into TBT&rsquo;s field in 2022, taking over longtime TBT franchise Armored Athlete.</li>
<li>India Rising, TBT&rsquo;s first team of players entirely of Indian descent, will be competing in the Syracuse Regional. Their roster includes former Stanford big man Josh Sharma, and one time G League Ignite prospect Princepal Singh.</li>
</ul>
Tickets for all TBT game days and events are on sale now at www.thetournament.com. For more information, please contact <a href="mailto:info@thetournament.com">info@thetournament.com</a>.
About The Basketball Tournament
The home of the Elam Ending&reg;, The Basketball Tournament has grown from a unique idea among friends to one of the most exciting and engaging events on the summer sports calendar, with worldwide exposure on ESPN and events across the country - culminating in a winner-take-all $1 million game. Every year it attracts some of the best players in the world. For more information on TBT&rsquo;s ninth season, visit www.thetournament.com

Now in Year 9, TBT will feature 71 players with NBA experience and 29 college alumni teams, both of which are TBT records.

Record 71 players with NBA experience headline 2022 TBT event

Paul Pierce, Jalen Rose, Jay Williams, Adrian Wojnarowski and Maria Taylor gave Alex Kennedy an inside look at ESPN's "NBA Countdown."