Jayson Tatum was called for a technical foul so ridiculous that even Kevin Durant had to laugh about it
Boston's Jayson Tatum was called for the most unnecessary technical foul against Oklahoma City's Aleksej Pokusevski on Monday night.
Tatum missed a layup on offense, then fouled Pokusevski when he got back on defense, and he was clearly a little frustrated with himself. He clapped his hands in frustration the same way you would when you are disappointed after realizing you burnt a piece of toast or didn't get to the post office in time before it closed.
But the referee clearly thought Tatum's reaction was about the call, and the Boston superstar was whistled for an extremely unexpected technical foul.
There was absolutely no reason for a technical foul, but the damage was already done, and the Thunder took a trip to the free-throw line to cash in after the gifted opportunity.
It didn't take long for the clip to make the rounds on social media, though, and Brooklyn's Kevin Durant wasn't shy about sharing his opinion on what happened.
According to Durant, the whistle against Tatum was the "worst tech" he had seen in a long time. Durant added that the call was so bad that he was "actually laughing."
After the game, when asked about what happened, Tatum shared a similar reaction.
"Anybody in the arena, anybody watching the game could have seen that I was frustrated with myself," he said. "I didn't say anything, I didn't look at him. After the game, you can just laugh it off when you see it."
The Celtics went on to win 126-122 and extend their win streak to seven games.
Paste BN Sports+ producer Victoria Hernandez contributed to this story.