Ref: Paul Pierce Was Ejected Because of ‘Verbal Taunt’


Pierce’s wildly controversial ejection yesterday was caused by whatever it is he happened to say to Dwyane Wade in the heat of the moment, explains the man who tossed him out of Game 1. From CBS Sports: “Q: What did Paul Pierce do to merit the 2nd technical with 7:00 remaining? [Dan] Crawford: ‘It’s what we call a verbal taunt. He directed profanity towards (Dwyane) Wade. And in the rulebook, that is a verbal taunt. And it just so happened to be Pierce’s second technical foul.’ Q: What did Pierce do for the technical after the (James) Jones foul with 7:59 left? Crawford: ‘The first technical foul, it was contact during a dead ball. He approached Jones and got right in his face. There wasn’t a head-butt, but he got right into his face after a hard foul.’ Q: Why did Jones merit a technical with 7:59 remaining? Crawford: ‘We just looked at that. It was Jones’ hard foul that pretty much precipitated Paul doing what he did. The technical foul on Jones will probably be looked at. He didn’t do as much as we thought. We thought he got in and became aggressive or initiated. But after looking at video, that’s something that we’ll have to look at again.'”