‘F***ing ridiculous’: Donovan Mitchell erupts over ejection in wild Jazz’ 76ers loss

Ben Simmons and his Philadelphia 76ers pulled off a major NBA scalp against the top ranked Utah Jazz but an All-Star has blown up deluxe.

The Utah Jazz’s Donovan Mitchell has blown up deluxe after the Philadelphia 76ers 131-123 overtime loss, making it back-to-back losses for the team with the NBA’s best record.

The match between the two conference leaders didn’t disappoint with the Sixers’ Joel Embiid sending it to OT with a three pointer with 5.3 seconds left to play.

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But it was in OT that the game erupted with Mitchell ejected from the court with 30 seconds remaining after copping two technical fouls in the extra period.

He was furious as he left the court yelling back at the officials before knocking over a water cooler on the sideline before apologising to the security guard stationed outside the change rooms.

Donovan Mitchell was ejected in overtime. pic.twitter.com/GfjGNqFPn8

— ESPN (@espn) March 4, 2021

The commentators called the moment selfish after the ejection and said the league would want to look at the incident with the water cooler.

But it appeared as though Mitchell was more furious about an uncalled incident just before his second technical where he felt the Jazz deserved a foul.

But Mitchell wasn’t done, hitting back at Embiid on Twitter after the game, calling him “a fool”.

You a fool bruh 😂

— Donovan Mitchell (@spidadmitchell) March 4, 2021

Hahaha Second time I get you T’d up lmao GG https://t.co/ovQxl2gdK0

— Joel “Troel” Embiid (@JoelEmbiid) March 4, 2021

Post-match in his media commitments, Mitchell gave credit to the Sixers but then took aim at the referees.

“It’s tough to go out there, see how we fight and compete and to have a game like that taken from us,” he said. “I’m never ever one to blame a ref, blame an official, but this is getting out of hand. There have been games like this we’ve one. Games we’ve lost. We’re nice, we don’t complain, we don’t get frustrated, we fight through things.

“But the fact that we continual get screwed in a way by this. We won this game in my personal opinion, but I’m going to give them credit, they won, whatever, cool.

Joel Embiid called for a technical on Mitchell during OT.

“The question is can we do it, can we sustain it, are we a true number one? Yeah we are. It’s getting f***ing ridiculous that this is what’s happened. We have the whole second half of the season but we’re sick of it, we all are. This is something that just eats at me man. You know what it is, we all know what it is but it’s really getting out of hand and the league needs to do something about this.”

He wasn’t alone though, with NBA veteran Mike Conley also taking aim at the refs.

However he voiced his issue was that the NBA refs were harder on small market teams like the Jazz.

“My view was not just the end of the game – I thought the game was getting out of a hand a little bit earlier on,” Conley said. “We should have executed better to win the game. Joel hit a big shot. … But it’s tough. We fought so hard, did all the things we could control. And tonight there were some things that were out of our control.

“We don’t have the big time names, the ones that are all over the TV and stuff like that. It can get a little wild. But we have stars. Don’s a star. Rudy’s a star. Bojan. Guys deserve to get those calls and it’s just not happening for us right now.”

The referees were under fire.

Jazz head coach Quin Snyder even added: “I heard Donovan’s comments. Obviously, there’s a level of frustration that he has, that we have, and that’s something that presumably you can’t control.”

Mitchell had a team high 33 points before his ejection but Embiid led that game, hit 40 points and 19 rebounds in another starring performance.

Tobias Harris added 22 points and 10 boards, including 11 points in OT, while Ben Simmons scored 17 points for the game in the Sixers win.

Donovan Mitchell got so mad he threw a water jug into an event staffer. Joel Embiid’s power.

— Tim Marcin (@TimMarcin) March 4, 2021