NEW YORK — NBA or Europe, regular referees or replacements, the rules are the same: Two technical fouls is an automatic ejection, and anyone ejected must leave the floor.

Maccabi Tel Aviv wanted a pass on that rule Sunday.

The New York Knicks’ 106-91 victory over the Euroleague team featured a bizarre delay in the third quarter when the visiting coach refused to leave after he was ejected.

The game was halted about 8 minutes when Pini Gershon continued to linger near Maccabi’s bench — a delay that included a rabbi trying to intervene by asking the NBA’s replacement referees calling the game to allow Gershon to stay.

“I explained that this is not a regular game and the kids are watching and [it's] important that there will be peace and forgive him,” Rabbi Yitchak Dovid Grossman said of his discussions with the officials. “If you forgive him, I can speak to the children and say, ‘You also forgive. If you have a fight, you forgive.’ But he says this is the law, that you must obey.”

Gershon eventually left after a lengthy discussion with the referees, his assistant coaches and NBA security personnel. A security official said Gershon told them he didn’t care if the game was stopped before he eventually agreed to leave.

“He likes the crowd, the crowd likes him very much,” Maccabi’s Yaniv Green said. “They’re coming to the game to see him even more than they’re coming to see us. He’s quite a character, like you saw today.” (ESPN)

Classy. Just play the game like it’s supposed to be played and you won’t be ejected. Rules are rules, buddy!

Funny that they had to get a rabbi out there to get the coach off the court. I didn’t see that one coming. ESPN has a short clip talking about the Maccabi coach ejection.