Hawks' Budenholzer fined $25,00 for contact with official

ATLANTA (AP) - Atlanta Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer was fined $25,000 on Monday for making contact with an official, a punishment that was strongly criticized by the referees' union as too lenient.

The fine, announced by NBA vice president for basketball operations Kiki VanDeWeghe, followed Budenholzer's technical foul and ejection from Saturday's 109-97 loss at the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Budenholzer was given a technical for arguing a call. He bumped referee Ben Taylor after stepping on the floor and was quickly tossed.

Budenholzer said after the game any contact "was 100 percent unintentional." The league agreed, calling the contact incidental.

But the National Basketball Referees Association quickly issued a statement saying Budenholzer deserved a suspension.

"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," said Lee Seham, the NBRA's general counsel. "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."