Referees' union rips NBA for not suspending Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer

National Basketball Referee's Association general counsel Lee Seham responded angrily to the NBA's unwillingness to suspend Atlanta Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer for making on-court contact with a game official.

Budenholzer was ejected for coming onto the court and brushing against referee Ben Taylor on Saturday night in a loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers.

The NBA issued a $25,000 fine to Budenholzer on Monday.

Seham's public statement included an apparent shot at NBRA nemesis Mark Cuban, the owner of the Dallas Mavericks.

"Referees operate in an environment in which an influential NBA team owner has repeatedly mocked the efficacy of fines as means to change bad behavior. Recent league precedent dictated that a coach who aggressively charged onto the floor during live action and physically interfered with a referee would be suspended.

"We are now operating at a lower level with less transparency, degraded safety and diminished respect for the game. Coaches should compete by creating better teams, not by physically intimidating officials."

The NBA termed Budenholzer's contact with the referee as "incidental" in announcing his fine.

NBA Coaches Association president Rick Carlisle, the head coach of the Dallas Mavericks, responded to Seham in a released statement Tuesday morning.

"The NBA Coaches Association greatly values our working relationship with the league office and our officials," Carlisle said. "For the record, our association would NEVER lobby for the suspension of an official for a situation like this one that has been thoroughly reviewed by the NBA and clearly determined to be incidental in nature. We view the unwarranted and reckless verbal attacks by Referee Union general counsel as grandstanding in nature, and beneath the dignity of the highly regarded group whose interests he claims to represent. The best interests of our great league lie far above what appears to be an obvious cheap and misguided attempt for a blast of short-term Twitter fame."

The NBRA had cited previous examples of coaches getting suspended for contact with an official, which are believed to be Mike Brown (2012), Gregg Popovich (2003) and Tim Floyd (2001).

Budenholzer issued a statement on Monday night, saying he reached out to Taylor and apologized to him for the incident in Saturday's game. "We all understand that any contact – including incidental contact – with an official is unacceptable. I accept the NBA's fine and look forward to putting this situation in the past."