Ime Udoka has never been shy with his words. He’s been fined for them. He’s been tossed for them. But this time, the fallout came in an entirely unexpected way.

During Houston’s home game against the New Orleans Pelicans, the Rockets’ broadcast crew found themselves laughing through a discussion that was supposed to be routine. They were revisiting Udoka’s latest run-in with the league office — a five-figure fine that had already made headlines — without realizing their explanation of it was about to set social media on fire.

As the game unfolded, the conversation drifted back to Houston’s 128–125 overtime loss to the Denver Nuggets earlier in the week. In that game, Udoka publicly ripped the officiating, comments strong enough to earn him a $25,000 fine from the NBA.

That’s when one of the commentators leaned in with a grin. “I’m gonna get into what he said after the last game, a loss in overtime in Denver,” he said. “Because he made me laugh.”

He then proceeds to ‘quote’ Udoka from that presser. “Ime Udoka said, ‘They had three officials and two of them should have been working at McDonald’s.'” Yeah, that would’ve been hilarious. If Udoka really had said that.

The commentators happened to fall for some little Internet meme-ry. Udoka never made the McDonald’s comment, although it sounds like something he’d say.

One huge Kevin Durant fan who believed in Udoka’s sentiments summarized their inner thoughts in a fake quote that was shared on the Internet thousands of times. It appears the commentators read the fake quote instead of listening to Udoka’s real rant.

So what really happened?

The real Ime Udoka rant

Ime Udoka called the Nuggets game “the most poorly officiated [he’s] seen in a long time.” He called out each person of the officiating crew to criticize them.

“Two [referees] have no business being out there, and crew chief (Zach Zarba) was acting starstruck, so you’re seeing all kinds of inconsistent calls, and I’m sure we should’ve got a few more techs,” Udoka said.

The NBA’s Last Two Minute Report revealed that there were three incorrect calls in overtime that favored Denver. Amen Thompson and Kevin Durant also drew incorrect calls.

Those calls gave Denver four free throws. Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray made them and extended the lead to 128-122 with 47.2 seconds remaining in the game.

So Udoka’s frustration was understandable. Even more understandable that Houston fans would interpret a crazier version of the quotes.

However, Udoka never name-dropped Nikola Jokic or the big M. It’s something that the original poster felt strongly about, as evidenced by the 1.4k people who shared it and the 20k people who liked it.

The NBA still doesn’t like its employees being criticized, though. The public rant drew a $25k fine, as announced by James Jones, Executive Vice President and Head of Basketball Operations.

Yet the Pelicans get the last laugh. The stragglers of the West beat the Rockets 133-128. Anyone on that side gets to poke a little fun. Now we have to wait and see if Ime Udoka has some ‘real’ clapback over it.