Dallas Mavericks bench player Theo Pinson was forced to change his shirt before Game 3 of the NBA Western Conference Finals.
Prior to the Mavs’ 109-100 loss on Sunday night, referee Marc Davis approached Pinson, who was sitting on the bench, and asked him to change his white shirt. The reason? Jersey confusion.
Since the Golden State Warriors were in the building, and were wearing their white away jerseys, Davis told Pinson to change his shirt because it was too similar to the away team’s jersey. Pinson was a bench player at the time and thus was wearing civilian clothing, and not the Mavericks jersey.
“Hey, do me a favor,” Davis said to Pinson. “This is crazy. Can you change your shirt? Will you do that for me?” After Pinson asked why, there was some friendly banter between he and the ref. “Because it’s the same color as them and you’re going to be in the way. I’ll even buy it for you.”
Ref awkwardly asks Theo Pinson to change his shirt…Pinson doesn’t do it lol pic.twitter.com/UdOzOalPar
— Gifdsports (@gifdsports) May 23, 2022
Despite this, however, Pinson did not change his shirt, resulting in the Mavericks being fined $100,000 for violating bench decorum rules. This marks the third time this season that Dallas has been fined for violating this policy.
“On multiple occasions, several players and a member of the coaching staff stood for an extended period in the Mavericks’ team bench area, stood away from the team bench, and were on or encroaching upon the playing court during game action,” a statement endorsed by NBA president of operations Byron Spruell said.
It does not appear that the Mavs’ bench decorum has been working thus far, as they are down 0-3 to the Warriors in this series, and are now one win away from elimination. Meanwhile, Steph Curry and the Warriors are one win away from reaching the Finals — again.
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