Houston Rockets guard James Harden fined 25K for criticizing official

After Houston Rockets star guard James Harden was fined $25,000 on Saturday for publicly criticizing referee Scott Foster after a game earlier this week, he later was ruled out for his team's road tilt against the Warriors at Golden State.

Head coach Mike D'Antoni told reporters before facing the Warriors that his All-Star guard would miss the game after being officially listed as questionable because of a cervical neck strain.

The NBA announced Harden's punishment on Saturday, as he was upset with the officiating during Houston's 111-106 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers on Thursday. He fouled out with 1:24 left when he was called for his fourth offensive foul of the game.

Although referee Michael Smith called the sixth foul, Foster was the target of Harden's blistering postgame comments.

"Scott Foster, man. I never really talk about officiating or anything like that, but just rude and arrogant," Harden told reporters. "I mean, you aren't able to talk to him throughout the course of the game, and it's like, how do you build that relationship with officials? And it's not even that call (on the sixth foul). It's just who he is on that floor.

"It's pretty frustrating. And I'm probably going to get hit (with a fine), but honestly, I don't really say anything. I'm a pretty quiet guy, to myself, but it's one of those things where you can't voice your opinion. You can't have a conversation with someone that's officiating the game. You're getting a tech. It's pretty sad."

Harden scored 30 points in that contest to increase his streak of 30-point scoring efforts to 32 games, the second longest in NBA history behind Hall of Famer Wilt Chamberlain's 65-game run.

Harden, the reigning NBA MVP, is averaging a league-leading 36.5 points this season. —Field Level Media/Reuters