David Stern urges NBA coaches to stop criticizing referees

reporting from oklahoma city — 

— NBA Commissioner David Stern has a message to Lakers Coach Phil Jackson, in a Clint Eastwood kind of way: go ahead, make my day.

Stern is fed up with NBA coaches criticizing referees and said he would not back down from penalizing them. In fact, in his perfect world, he could impose steeper penalties.

“I wish I had it to do all over again, starting 20 years ago; I’d be suspending Phil and Pat Riley for the games they play in the media,” Stern said Thursday before the Lakers and Oklahoma City played Game 3 in their first-round series.

“As you guys know, our referees go out there and knock themselves out and do the best job they can. But we’ve got coaches who will do whatever it takes to try to work them publicly. What that does is erode fan confidence.

“So our coaches should be quiet because this is a good business that makes them good livings and supports a lot of families, and if they don’t like it they should go get a job someplace else.”

Jackson has been fined twice this month for a total of $70,000.

He was hit with a $35,000 fine last week for saying Thunder forward Kevin Durant was treated “like a superstar” by referees.

Three weeks ago, he was also fined $35,000 for saying Kobe Bryant was hit unnecessarily with a technical foul against San Antonio because “with [referee] Bennett [Salvatore], you never know what you’re going to get.”

Stern said he wished the fines were more severe.

“If I had to do it again … the price wouldn’t be a modest $35,000 fine. It would be whatever a day’s pay is and then two day’s pay and then a week’s pay. And if someone wants to try me in the rest of this playoffs, make my day.

“The game is too important and I don’t think that the people that are trashing it are respecting it, and we’ll do what we have to do, players and coaches alike. They give the impression to our fans that our referees somehow have an agenda. Yeah, they have an agenda. It’s to knock themselves out to give the best call that they can give and then to send their checks home to their mothers and give the rest to charity.”

The very last part was said tongue in cheek, presumably, but Stern was adamant while speaking about the need to protect referees despite what he called the “pressure cooker” of the playoffs.

Jackson declined to comment.

Stern seemed to have no other issues with Jackson.

“I think that Phil’s a great coach,” he said. “He’s a friend of many years. I just came by and said hi and he said, ‘I don’t like you today.’ I said, ‘I like you.’ ”

mike.bresnahan@latimes.com

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