Ever since Fred VanVleet slammed NBA referee Ben Taylor for calling unwarranted technical fouls against him, the referee has only been named crew chief once, marking a stark change of pace for the referee.
Tom Haberstroh of the Basketball Illuminati podcast appeared on The JD Bunkis podcast to discuss how the NBA handled the ongoing situation between VanVleet and Taylor and pointed out what he thinks may have been a demotion for the referee.
Definitely caught my eye that the NBA moved referee Ben Taylor out of his usual crew chief role in four of the five games after the Fred VanVleet press conference. Here's more on that:
“In the last five games, Ben Taylor has only been the crew chief once,” Haberstroh explained. “He’s been the referee [number] two four times since that game, since that rant, which is a real abnormality with Ben Taylor. If you look at his previous 52 games this season, Ben Taylor was the crew chief in 41 of those games. Basically four out of five of those games, he was crew chief.”
"Since that Fred VanVleet rant... the NBA has actually demoted Ben Taylor in his assignments." @tomhaberstroh on how the #NBA has handled the Taylor/VanVleet situation with @JDBunkis.
While the NBA hasn’t officially announced any form of disciplining toward Taylor, Haberstroh sounded convinced that the league had demoted him based on his recent assignments since VanVleet’s rant.
“Taylor hasn’t been a referee two in back-to-back games all season,” Haberstroh continued. “After the Fred VanVleet [incident], it’s happened twice. I don’t know if that’s intentional or whether that’s luck-of-the-draw, but certainly, the NBA has taken a different path when it comes to Ben Taylor’s assignments, whether that’s punishment or whether that’s just [them saying] ‘you need to chill out a little.”
