Oklahoma City Thunder forward Patrick Patterson has been been slapped with a $US10,000 for publicly complaining about NBA match officials.
It stems from a post Patterson made on Twitter, writing on Saturday: "They've been (expletive) this year. There needs to be some kind of consequence for their downright awfulness rather than pointless apologies from their bosses. #dobetter."
As of Sunday evening, Patterson's comment had earned more than 1500 retweets and 4100 likes. Among those to click "like" was Mark Cuban, owner of the rival Dallas Mavericks.
The tweet comes on the heels of a blown call that cost the Thunder the game against Milwaukee on Friday night in Oklahoma City.
Even though he stepped out of bounds on the play, Giannis Antetokounmpo hit a basket with 1.3 seconds left that the officials counted, leading the Bucks to a 97-95 win over the Thunder.
Thunder coach Billy Donovan and several of his players pleaded for a review, but the officials refused.
