The Pool Report interview was conducted by James Edwards III (The Athletic) with Crew Chief Rodney Mott following today’s Boston Celtics at Detroit Pistons game

QUESTION:  What deemed Hamidou Diallo’s contact of the official malicious, rather than incidental?

MOTT: “Per rule, any contact with a game official, and in this case a shove, is deemed a hostile act and an automatic ejection.”

QUESTION:  Do officials have the wiggle room to determine what is a hostile act vs. incidental contact?

MOTT: “Yes, and in this case, we used replay to confirm that a hostile act had occurred.”