NBA slaps Bulls' Gibson with $25,000 fine

Bulls forward Taj Gibson was fined $25,000 for his verbal abuse of an official in Wednesday's Game 2 at Miami.

The incident happened early in the fourth quarter. Gibson was called for a technical foul, seemed surprised at the call, then grew more angry and got a second technical. He appeared to be spewing profanities when he was pulled off the court by Bulls security director Eric Buck.

Gibson sent out an apology via Twitter on Friday afternoon. It read as follows: “I want 2 apologize Bulls and NBA fans 4 my actions. Got 2 keep my passion focused on my team. Get hyped for tonight Chicago!”

There was some speculation Gibson might be suspended for tonight's Game 3, but the NBA rarely suspends players without physical contact of some sort being involved.

Meanwhile, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reported the league reviewed and upgraded Mario Chalmers' foul against Joakim Noah in Game 2 to a flagrant, grade one. Noah set a screen on Chalmers, who responded by smacking Noah across the neck with his arm.

Not surprisingly, the league has sent noted hard-line official Joe Crawford to work tonight's game, along with David Guthrie and Derrick Stafford.

After the Bulls and Knicks were called for 9 technical fouls on Dec. 21, Crawford worked the next two games between those teams.

The Bulls and Heat combined for 9 technicals on Wednesday, including 6 by the Bulls. Miami's Chris Anderson was given a flagrant foul for pushing Marco Belinelli from behind.