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Kevin Durant gets ejected in first game back

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Warriors forward Kevin Durant was ejected Thursday in the second quarter of Golden State’s 116-107 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks.

Durant now has been ejected from five games this year, tied for the most by a player in a single season since Rasheed Wallace in 2000-2001. Wallace was bounced from seven games that season.

In 2012-2013, Larry Sanders of the Bucks was ejected from five contests, according to ESPN.

It was a rocky re-entry for Durant, who missed the previous six games with a rib injury. He was tossed after receiving his second technical foul of the night with just over two seconds remaining in the first half.

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“I got fouled and told ’em how I felt about it, and they kicked me out. Pretty simple,” he said after the game.

Durant claims he was fouled by Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo on a drive to the hoop with about 13 second left in the half. Durant hit the deck on the miss, but no foul was called.

He got up and started arguing with referee Tre Maddox while the play was still going on. Maddox gave him one technical foul, and when Durant kept arguing, he was called for a second technical.

“Mr. Durant was ejected due to the fact of two technical fouls. The first technical foul was issued for vulgarity. After the first technical foul was issued, the official tried to walk away, started to walk away, and the vulgarity escalated, and then he was assessed a second technical foul for the escalation of the vulgarity, resulting in an ejection,” crew chief Bill Kennedy said in a statement.

Do you think the referee was right to eject Durant?

Durant finished with 10 points in 17 minutes.

Overall, Durant has 14 technical fouls this year. If he’s called for two more, he will be suspended for one game.

“I got thrown out of the basketball game. I wish I didn’t. I wanted to play. I’m sorry. Well, I’m not sorry, but I wish I could finish the game,” Durant stated. “Definitely wanted to finish the game. That’s (what) I’m more so upset about — that I didn’t finish the game I wanted to play after being out a couple of weeks.”

One reporter asked Durant why he’s been ejected from so many games this year compared to previous seasons. In his career, other than this season, ejections for Durant were rare.

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“It’s usually just bad calls that I’m protesting,” Durant said after the game, as reported by SB Nation. “Is it a character flaw that I get thrown out of games? I hope not. I hope you don’t look at it that way. It’s mainly just foul calls that I think are wrong, and I tell them about it, and they don’t like how I say it. But I could definitely.. talk to them a little better, I guess.”

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Dave is a lifelong sports fan who has been writing for The Wildcard since 2017. He has been a writer for more than 20 years for a variety of publications.
Dave has been writing about sports for The Wildcard since 2017. He's been a reporter and editor for over 20 years, covering everything from sports to financial news. In addition to writing for The Wildcard, Dave has covered mutual funds for Pensions and Investments, meetings and conventions, money market funds, personal finance, associations, and he currently covers financial regulations and the energy sector for Macallan Communications. He has won awards for both news and sports reporting.
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