Watch: Jayson Tatum receives technical foul for hanging on rim after dunk

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Watch: Jayson Tatum receives technical foul for hanging on rim after dunk

Posted By: jasabacklink January 20, 2024

Celtics

Tatum appeared to have held on to the rim for safety reasons, but was called for a technical anyway.

Jayson Tatum was issued a technical for hanging on the rim for the second time this season. Barry Chin/Globe Staff

Jayson Tatum made Friday night’s TD Garden crowd roar with excitement with an emphatic slam dunk after stealing the ball on the other end of the court.


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That excitement quickly turned to frustration when the officials called a technical foul on Tatum for hanging on to the rim too long after scoring.

Tatum committed a steal on the Celtics’ end of the parquet midway through the second quarter and raced down the court. He avoided a handful of defenders on the breakaway and posterized Peyton Watson to complete the sequence.

Coming fast down the court and jumping up for the dunk, Tatum opted to hang on to the rim for an extra second. Whether it was to ensure his own safety to avoid landing hard, to steer clear from falling on anyone below him, or both, the referee crew wasted no time issuing the star player a technical.

Tatum pled his case with the officials, and so did the rest of the Celtics’ players and coaching staff, to no avail.

While Tatum received the technical, it appears Watson may have gotten away with a foul of his own on the play. The Nuggets’ defender jumped up in lockstep with Tatum and appeared to swat at the Boston star’s wrist mid-dunk.

Tatum is no stranger to receiving a technical for hanging on the rim this season. Back in November, referees assessed him the same foul, and Tatum didn’t hold back on his opinion of the rule postgame.

“That’s a rule that they just implemented that, quite frankly, I don’t think makes any sense,” Tatum said on Nov. 24. “Anybody that’s ever played or dunked the ball, you know your momentum … just trying to make sure you’re stable when you land and make sure nobody’s underneath you.”

The league’s rule states that players are not allowed to hang on to the rim “unless they are doing so to avoid injury to themselves or another player.”

Considering Tatum’s physical momentum and that multiple players were underneath him immediately following his dunk on Friday night, he can certainly make the case he held on for safety purposes.