PHOENIX — Mercury coach Nate Tibbetts stood at center court, dumbfounded. With 2:41 left in the third quarter of Phoenix's 97-86 Game 4 loss in the WNBA Finals on Friday night, he received two quick technical fouls for arguing a foul call, becoming the first coach in league history to be ejected in a Finals game.
«To me, it's just embarrassing,» Tibbetts said. «I feel bad that I was tossed. I mean, I've been around this game a long time. I think it's one of the weakest double technicals ever. I didn't even know that I got the second one, to be completely honest. I just don't understand it.
»I feel bad for our team, our fans, my family. Like, it wasn't needed in my opinion."
Crew chief Roy Gulbeyan told a pool reporter afterward that Tibbetts earned his first technical after saying, «That's f---ing terrible,» after a foul was called on Mercury guard Monique Akoa Makani. According to Gulbeyan, Tibbetts then stepped in closer toward the official and again yelled, «That's f---ing terrible,» drawing the second technical for an automatic ejection.
«It's weak, weak, weak,» Tibbetts said. «We were playing for our playoff lives. Most coaches, when they get tossed, you're doing it on purpose. That wasn't my intention at all.… I didn't feel like I deserved it at all.… It was bulls---.»
Mercury players Kahleah Copper and DeWanna Bonner were also assessed technicals in the fourth quarter. Gulbeyan said Bonner's was because of a «heat-of-the-moment reaction,» including protesting a no-call and overtly air-punching at an official.
Copper was given a tech after she was assessed a loose-ball foul and yelled a profanity after she «aggressively approached the calling official.»
«There have been issues with officiating all year,» Tibbetts
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