Morris ejected and then slaps ref on rear on the way out

[bellerephon]

Hard to see the league not giving him a suspension.  However innocent it may have seemed, Morris still made contact with an official, and immediately after being ejected.

I'll be surprised if he isn't suspended for 1 game.

The league can of course suspend him, there was contact, but in truth the often stated rule that any contact results in a suspension isn't totally accurate. Players touch refs all the time, hand on shoulder, pat on back etc. What is totally forbidden is any aggressive or angry contact, e.g. bumping or pushing. Morris' butt pat here is a bit of a grey area, it's not totally innocent, but it's clearly not aggressive or challenging. It's more sarcastic than anything else. I suppose it depends on whether or not the league wants to prevent that kind of thing in the future.

Quincy Acy unintentionally swung at a ref in his "fight" against Andre Drummond. Both players ejected. I expect Acy to be suspended for a game or two.

Morris slapping a ref on the rear on his way out was intentional. I also expect at least one game suspension. I'll be surprised if he just gets slapped with a fine, tho lol.

I actually think that fight reinforces my point, Acy pushes the ref out of his way to get to Drummond, that's totally intentional. He might not have realized it was a ref, but it was an aggressive act and warrants suspension. Morris' butt slap is intentional yes, but as I said not all contact with a refs is forbidden, players touch refs all the time and don't get suspended. I'm not saying he won't get suspended, the league may decide it wants to discourage what Morris did, but I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't. It was sarcastic, not aggressive or violent or an attempt at intimidation.

[bellerephon]

A quick Google search will show players have slapped ref butts before without suspension, Kobe, Meta World Peace, and Tyson Chandler have all slapped a ref and not been suspended.

[fairweatherfan]

I thought he was saying, "Try me, try me"..  Either way, weird ejection.

Yeah, I'm not sure what Scal was looking at. He was saying "try me" and talking to Ibaka, not DeRozan.

That makes way more sense, then.  Challenging a guy to come after you in a decided game between rivals is exactly the circumstances where refs will boot a guy very very fast, especially in the post-Malice at the Palace era.