Referee apologizes to Rick Carlisle for interaction with Deron Williams
With the permission of the NBA, veteran referee David Jones apologized to Dallas Mavericks head coach Rick Carlisle for his behavior in Wednesday's game.
"With the League's permission, referee David Jones contacted me today to apologize for the situation that developed with Deron Williams last night," Carlisle said in a statement obtained by ESPN's Tim MacMahon. "I accepted his apology and told him that I now consider this matter in the past."
Jones slapped Williams with a technical foul after he trotted over to engage the Mavericks bench during a timeout. Naturally, Carlisle was not happy with Jones escalating the situation and sounded off in in the postgame.
"For the first time in a 33-year NBA career, I saw a referee make a point of going out of his way and walking into our huddle and baiting one of our guys into getting a technical," Carlisle told ESPN's Tim MacMahon on Wednesday. "I've never seen anything like that in my years in this league."
To make matters worse, the Mavericks lost 102-96 to the Detroit Pistons, which promptly dropped them to seventh in the West.