Raptors’ Fred VanVleet gets Stephen A. Smith’s support amid Ben Taylor drama

Fred VanVleet and the Toronto Raptors lost two consecutive games with the help of some dubious officiating. Scottie Barnes was ejected from a loss against the Denver Nuggets thanks to more Scott Foster nonsense, and VanVleet ended up taking a hit to the wallet.

After a loss to the Los Angeles Clippers, VanVleet went scorched earth on the officials, calling out Ben Taylor by name in an expletive-laden rant. While he did get fined $30,000 for this transgression, he got the support of ESPN talking head Stephen A. Smith in exchange.

Smith said that passion is a part of the game, and referees are often overstepping their boundaries by taking matters into their own hands. Smith believes that older referees like Steve Javie and Dick Bavetta were often strict, but that very rarely took away from the fact they were excellent at their jobs.

Smith said that VanVleet was right in his belief that fans do not show up to games or tune in to watch officials do their job. Smith said that refs like Taylor acting like this is “really problematic” before calling on Adam Silver to do something about this problem.

Stephen A. Smith supported Toronto Raptors PG Fred VanVleet

VanVleet has been called for eight technical fouls this season, and four of them have come in games with Taylor officiating. Taylor has only officiated six Raptors games this year. Could this be a sign that Taylor is trying to make an example out of the veteran point guard?

What makes VanVleet’s technicals more concerning is the fact that he is very rarely getting physical with an official or player. While we may not know exactly what was said, the fact that Taylor could be weaponizing his authority against VanVleet

Smith may also be correct in claiming that referees are “soft” nowadays, taking personal offense to things that players say to or about them more than older officials. If VanVleet said something that challenged the integrity of the crew, as Foster hinted at following his ejection of Barnes, that is still incredibly subjective.

Being an official is a hard and thankless job. Being right 98% of the time won’t make up for the other 2% of mistakes. Having said that, Taylor and Foster have both put up some horrible performances in the last few days, and Smith felt that it was necessary to use his platform in support of VanVleet.