'Foul-mouthed' Buford escaping ban makes NBL a laughing stock - all refs should strike over weak ‘punishment’

For anyone who thinks the NBL is a professional sporting organisation, the decision to allow Sydney coach Chase Buford to escape with just a fine for his foul-mouthed referee rant brings that into question.

Every whistleblower in the land from the NBL to the junior ranks should walk off the job in protest for their next match. 

For anyone who missed the latest tantrum from the Kings coach, he raged his way onto the court in Cains during game two of the semi-final series on Friday night and yelled at referee Nico Fernandes.

The ref had given Sydney’s Kouat Noi a flop warning after he tumbled backwards while Taipans opponent DJ Hogg was trying to shake his defender. 

“How the f— is that a flop warning? He’s bleeding. Admit it, you f—ed up!”

He then turned his fury to head ref Vaughn Mayberry: “How is that a flop? Can you talk to him (Fernandes)? He (Noi) has got a broken nose now and it’s a flop warning.”

It was hardly the worst call that’s ever been blown – the great Andrew Gaze in commentary when watching the first replay of the incident agreed with the call by saying “there’s a reach in, yeah, there was a flop.” He later changed his opinion after watching further replays but the point stands – there have been much worse decisions on an NBL court that haven’t triggered a coach meltdown. 

There was a clash of heads in the incident and Noi was bleeding afterwards from the contact, which was the basis of Buford’s spray. 

Both things can be true – he could have exaggerated the clash of bodies down low from Hogg in a bid to trick the ref into calling an offensive foul and accidentally copped a knock up top in the process. 

Buford was tossed from the match with two minutes remaining as the Taipans emerged triumphant to set up a series decider in Sydney on Sunday afternoon.

Kings coach Chase Buford has a terrible reputation for the way he deals with referees. (Photo by Paul Kane/Getty Images)

And if you thought after cooling down that Buford would be remorseful, you’d be wrong. He basically called the NBL’s refs incompetent en masse by saying they guess rather than make decisions. 

“They guessed … they guessed wrong,” he said. “It happens a lot in this league and I don’t know why. They’re guessing the whole time.”

The NBL stuffed up – they should have banned Buford for the rest of the playoffs or at the very least, game three. 

But he not only didn’t get suspended, he coughed up a fine of $1875 after submitting early guilty pleas when the NBL slapped him on the wrists with a feather on Saturday with two counts of unsportsmanlike behaviour.

And the refs were professional enough to admit that by the letter of the rulebook, the contentious call was wrong. 

“The decision was incorrect and a flop warning should not have been called. A regular foul should have been called on Noi, which would have resulted in two free throws for the Taipans.”

Which of course does not excuse Buford’s misbehaviour. Nothing does. Incorrect calls happen in every sport but if each coach reacted like this prima donna, officials would be very thin on the ground. 

Why would anyone volunteer to cop this kind of treatment at any level, particularly the many at the grassroots level who do indeed volunteer their services as a match official or the teenagers who get paid a pittance to control junior games? 

This is the same Buford who was fined $10,000 and handed a one-game suspended sentence during last year’s playoffs for saying he hoped a particular referee that he named in a post-mach press conference wouldn’t be officiating in Kings games again.

He then offered up a contrite apology: “What I said was totally out of line, just an immature and emotional reaction to a play. I’ve got to stop getting involved in personal battles with the officials.”

Hmmm, he must have forgotten these words. Or perhaps he was just paying lip service, trying to appear remorseful when deep down he thought otherwise.

Then he was up to his usual antics again in December, kicking a door after a double-overtime loss to the Phoenix which triggered his one-game ban into action. 

And if this still doesn’t convince you that this guy is a serial offender, then jump on the YouTube machine to see his disgraceful 2020 effort while coaching in the G-League when he unloaded on the refs. 

“The officiating definitely went right for Grand Rapids. That was as unprofessional as an officiating performance. I hope you tweet this out and tag the league, because that was embarrassing,” he raged with the wild eyes of someone who had lost all control of their care for the consequences of his actions. 

“Matt Rafferty is a f—ing clown. That being said, we have to be so much better at the end of games. We can’t blow a 21-point lead with 12 minutes to go however bad and biased and unfair and illegal and cheating the referees are. We have to be better closing games. So that’s the way I feel.”

That tirade went viral with millions of views but even that hasn’t been enough for Buford to change his ways. 

For the NBL to allow a coach to get away with this kind of behaviour is beyond a joke and for all the gains it has made over the past decade in restoring its image, self-inflicted wounds like this one are a major body blow to the league’s credibility.