After 15 seasons in the NBA and in what was his 1082nd game in the league, LeBron James was ejected for the first time on Monday night.
James's Cleveland Cavaliers held a healthy 23-point lead against his old team, the Miami Heat, with two minutes remaining in the third quarter when he was thrown out of the game.
James reacted angrily towards an official after he felt that he was fouled on a play by James Johnson. He would later tell the media that he thought he was being fouled by Waiters for the length of the court on the play.
Referee Kane Fitzgerald said afterwards that James had been ejected for 'a culmination of acts'.
"Immediately after the no-call, he turned and threw an air punch directly at me, and then he aggressively charged at me, and then he used vulgarity in my ear a few times," said the official.
Speaking to the media in the locker room after the game, James said that he had expressed his frustration at being fouled to the referee.
I got fouled all the way up the court, from the time that I stripped him, all the way until I got to the rim. I said what I had to say and then I moved on, but he decided I should get [ejected]. It is what it is. We got the win, and that's what's most important.
In the 32-year-old's absence, Cleveland would go on to win 108-97.
