Brooklyn Nets coach Kenny Atkinson said his peace on Friday night to officials in the team’s 114-106 home loss to the Indiana Pacers, but that will leave him $25,000 poorer after the NBA fined him for his actions on Saturday.
Atkinson was cited for verbally abusing game officials and failing to leave the court in a timely manner after he was ejected after receiving a technical foul with 1:09 left in the game at Barclays Center.
Trailing by five late in the game, the Nets did not get a foul call on their offensive end of the floor, but Rodions Kurucs was called for a foul on the Pacers’ Darren Collison at the other end.
Atkinson bolted onto the floor and was ejected after confronting referee Tony Brothers.
“We’ve just got to be mentally stronger, and I’ve got to be mentally stronger, fighting through those situations,” Atkinson said after the game of his ejection. “Just frustration on my part. I have to coach myself. I don’t love that scene out there. That’s not what I’m there for. I’m not here to make a show. “So I apologize for that. That’s not who I am. But it happens in this league sometimes with the emotion and intensity of the game.”

Congolese boy helped by Mutombo dies
An eight-year-old boy from the Democratic Republic of Congo who came to Los Angeles with the help of former NBA star Dikembe Mutombo for surgery to remove a tumor from his face has died.
Mutombo and his foundation helped bring Matadi Sela Petit and his father to the United States earlier in December so that doctors could remove the tumor. But in an Instagram post on Saturday the foundation said the boy had died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center on Friday night after a reaction to anaesthesia during surgery. “The Dikembe Mutombo Foundation is sad to share the news of the passing of Matadi Sela Petit,” the post said, adding that the boy had “won everyone’s heart with his open and friendly attitude” since his arrival in the United States.
“During the delicate surgery, Matadi suffered a rare and unpredictable genetic reaction to anesthesia,” the statement said. “Despite the diligent efforts of his medical caregivers, Matadi did not recover and he passed away.”